Chief Financial Officer of Huawei is facing extradition case in Canada for alleged bank fraud.
About Extradition:
Extradition is an act where one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to their law enforcement.
It is a cooperative law enforcement process between the two jurisdictions and depends on the arrangements made between them.
Besides the legal aspects of the process, extradition also involves the physical transfer ofcustody of the person.
Need And Underlying Philosophy of The Law of Extradition:
Balance of Territorial concept of Criminal law: extradition allows states to show solidarity in repression of criminality and co-operate in the international battle against It balances the traditional principle of territoriality of Criminal Law.
Ensuring Justice: It ensures that nobody is able to bypass the rule of law in order to flee to other countries. This creates an expression of deterrence and enhances respect in rule of law.
Balance of International law with sovereignty: It balances competing imperatives of comity of nations (respect for a foreign court) on one hand, and international crime control on the other.
India Extradition Law:
In India, the extradition of a fugitive from India to a foreign country or vice versa is covered by the provisions of the Extradition Act, 1962.
The act lays down the first principles of extradition law.
The obligation to extradite springs out of treaties/arrangements/conventions entered into by India with other countries.
Basic Principles Governing Extradition
Principle of relative Seriousness of the offence: Extradition is usually permissible only for relatively more serious offences, and not for trivial misdemeanours or petty offences.
Principle of Dual Criminality: This is the most important principle governing Extradition Law. This requires that the offence that the fugitive is alleged to have committed, should be an offence both in the requesting as well as the requested state.
Principle of proportionality between offence and sentence :Â Requesting state should respect the principle of proportionality between offence and sentence
Rule of specialty: when a fugitive is extradited for a particular crime, he can be tried only for that crime.
A few common restrictions on extradition:
Failure to fulfill dual criminality: if the act for which the criminal’s extradition is requested is not a crime in the requested state, then the state can refuse extradition.
Political crimes: most nations refuse the extradition of political criminal suspects. This excludes terrorist offences and violent crimes.
The possibility of certain forms of punishment: if the accused is likely to receive capital punishment or torture in the requesting State, the requested state can refuse
Jurisdiction: jurisdiction over a crime can be invoked to refuse extradition.
The absence of an extradition treaty.
Conclusion
Extradition is a great step towards international cooperation in the suppression of crime. States should treat extradition as an obligation resulting from the international solidarity in the fight against crime.
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