Extradition Requests in UAE during the Global Pandemic

The requests for extradition are issued by a requesting country to another country (generally referred to as Requested Country) for returning an accused who has flown to the Requested country post committing a crime in the Requesting Country.

The request for extradition revolves around three parties that is the Requesting country, the criminal or the accused, or the Requested Country. The Criminal Lawyers of Dubai will herein explain the procedure for extradition requests and the impact of such requests during the global pandemic.

The requests for extradition are generally governed by the Criminal Laws of both the countries that Requesting and the Requested country along with the treaty for governing extradition signed between both the countries. The present article refers to the extradition requests submitted within the UAE.

The Federal number 39 of 2006 regarding Mutual Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters was issued by the government of UAE to govern all sorts of extradition requests submitted before the government of UAE.

In addition, the government of UAE has sanctioned numerous bilateral treaties with neighboring countries in order to pave the way with extradition requests received and submitted in such countries, for instance, China, Egypt, Pakistan, India, United Kingdom, Iran, France, and Australia.

Similarly, the government has signed Riyadh Convention regarding Judicial Cooperation between all Arab countries such as Bahrain, Iran, Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya, Jordan, Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Morocco.

In accordance with Article 7 of the Federal Extradition Law, the accused extradition request can only be accepted under the following conditions:

• The crime committed by the accused is punishable in the Requesting country for minimum imprisonment of one year or more
• The crime committed by the accused shall also be considered as a crime in Requested Country with a similar punishment
• The punishment for the accused is pending for six months or more.

Additionally, the request for such extradition can be challenged before several authorities including Interpol authorities of UAE, the relevant public prosecution governing international cases, the Court of Appeal, The Court of Cassation, and the Ministry of Interior or Justice.

As witnessed by Lawyers of Dubai the extradition requests can be from countries who have signed bilateral treaties with UAE and countries who have not signed any bilateral treaties with the country.

In a situation where the country has signed the bilateral treaty, the requesting country shall abide by the procedures of such requests as defined in the treaty and shall submit the extradition requests accordingly.

Whereas, there are several countries that have not signed any extradition requests with UAE, in such circumstances, the criminal judgment issued by the Requesting Country shall be utilized to file an extradition request along with the provisions of the Federal Extradition Law of UAE.

The Litigation Lawyers of Dubai has assisted innumerable clients and legally represented them before the relevant authorities in cases of extradition and have successfully rejected such requests from other countries for extraditing residents of Dubai. The country has very specific and elaborated procedural rules to deal with extradition requests from all over the world

Dr. Hassan Elhais is a legal consultant in Dubai, specializing in the drafting of all statements of claim, memos and consultation on litigation of all manner.