The below article describes and evaluates how extradition works in the UAE, as well as looking at the methods of extradition.
Extradition describes the legal process of removing a person who has been charged in one jurisdiction from a secondary jurisdiction for the purposes of prosecution or sentencing.
Being home to a large number of expatriates, the UAE receives a significant number of such extradition requests from secondary countries. The process for dealing with such requests begins with the UAE court system which looks at the request and assesses whether it is legally compliant with various laws to determine whether to reject or accept the extradition request. In certain cases there are bilateral or multilateral treaties that are in force with the requesting country. In cases where no such agreement exists with the requesting country, the judges apply local laws on judicial collaboration within international contexts; specifically the law outlined in Federal Law no. 39 of 2006 on Mutual Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters. Article 7 of this law describes several conditions that must exist for an extradition request to be considered. Namely:
Condition One
The act which is the subject of the extradition request must be considered a crime in both the requesting country and the UAE.
Condition Two
As per UAE Extradition Law No. 39 of 2006, there should be an agreement of equal treatment.
Condition Three
The penalty for the crime must be in excess of one year in prison in both the requesting country and the UAE’s jurisdiction. Punishment by fine is not enough to warrant an extradition request to be executed. Judgment can be made in absentia.
Extradition and the Death Penalty
The UAE will not automatically reject an extradition request when the person may face the death penalty if convicted of the crime that is the subject of the request. However, there is a caveat that the sentence of death must be considered reasonable by the measure of the UAE’s laws. If a crime is deemed too minor to warrant a potential sentence of death, it is less likely that an extradition request will be met.
Name of the Crime
Different jurisdictions describe crimes in different ways. However, this is irrelevant as Article 4 of the Extradition Laws of No. 39 of 2006, the name of the crime shall not affect the validity of the extradition request.
Prohibitions
There are a number of different circumstances that will invalidate an extradition request; including:
· Cases where UAE courts have jurisdiction over the same incident, even in cases where no criminal case has been opened (Article 8(2)).
· Cases where a criminal judgment has been issued for the crime that is the subject of the request in the UAE or any other country (Article 9(7)).
· Cases where there is time limit as per the requesting country (Article 9(9)).
· Cases where there are grounds to believe the request is made on discriminatory grounds such as ethnicity, nationality, political persuasion etc (Article 9(5)).
· Cases when there is valid reason to suspect the subject of the request may be subject to inhumane treatment or cruel punishment that is not commensurate to the crime committed.
· Any request related to a political crime.
In cases where an extradition request is made on the basis of a number of different crimes, some of which do not comply with the laws that alone will not invalidate the request; extradition could still be processed on the basis of the crimes that do fulfil the requirements of the law.
However, there are certain documents that must be submitted to UAE authorities by the requesting government in Arabic. Those documents include details of the subject of the request, such as passport and ID; copies of the law or laws that outline the crime that has been alleged; copies of paperwork detailing the particulars of the case and all investigations related to this; any judgment that has been issued by courts of the requesting country.
Transfer Procedures
• Extradition occurs through diplomatic channels. The first laws that are looked at are any treaties that exist between the UAE and the country seeking extradition. In the absence of such treaties, the UAE International Judicial Corporation Law will be applied. In the rare cases where these do not apply or are not relevant, the UAE’s national criminal law will be applied.
• Once the decision has been made to issue the extradition, the UAE’s Public Prosecution International Co-operation Department confirms the request will be processed through relevant channels.
• In circumstances where the requesting country requires the extradition of the person as a matter of urgency,. the UAE may detain the suspect as long as:
◦ The crime that is the subject of the request meets the standard of severity as determined by the Public Prosecution.
◦ The duration of detention should not exceed 15 days; although there is a clause to renew this to up to 40 days. In some cases treaties between specific countries may extend that to 60 days, but any extension must be approved by the Public Prosecution.
However, the accused person can be released in a number of situations, including:
- When an investigation is conducted by the UAE authorities at the behest of the requesting country and the demanding country fails to follow through with a further extradition application.
- When the accused makes a plea to the UAE Public Prosecution to be released and the determination is made the crime isn’t of a serious enough nature to continue detention.
- If the accused posts bail; or if another person gives a personal guarantee for the accused.
However, there is no guarantee that once released the suspect will not be re-arrested. If the requesting country follows up on the order once the suspect has been released the suspect can be detained again under all circumstances, regardless of posting bail or personal guarantee.
The person who is the subject of the extradition request has rights during the investigation process. He or she must be notified of the allegations issued by the requesting country and should be notified of their right to lawyer or to defend him or herself.
While extradition requests can be a complicated, the country has established guidelines of how to process them and the increase of bilateral and multilateral treaties is codifying the procedure, which is a frequent request in the country.