Picture File: Ajay and Atul Gupta speak to the media from the New Age Newspaper's offices in Johannesburg, South Africa on 4 March 2011. Picture: Gallo Images/City Press/Muntu Vilakazi
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) will reportedly issue a démarche to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to South Africa following government’s failed extradition of the Gupta brothers.
A démarche is a formal diplomatic representation of a government’s official position, views, or wishes on a given subject to an appropriate official in another government.
The UAE‘s ambassador to South Africa, Mahash Saeed Alhameli, will face a démarche from government in the next few days to answer questions about how alleged state capture kingpins Atul and Rajesh Gupta were released from jail after a Dubai Court of Appeal rejected SA’s extradition request, the Daily Maverick reported on Wednesday.
The report cited well-placed sources within Dirco.
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This follows the announcement made last week, by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola that government had learned with “shock and dismay” that South Africa’s extradition application was unsuccessful.
Lamola said the application was dismissed in February already and government only learned of this last Thursday, in a diplomatic note.
The minister said the extradition request was dismissed on a technicality and government would appeal the court’s ruling.
The Gupta brothers were arrested in Dubai in June last year, four months after Interpol issued a red notice for their arrest in connection with fraud and money laundering charges in South Africa.
Rajesh and Atul Gupta were reportedly seen in Switzerland in late March, according to a report by Bloomberg. This raised questions over whether the brothers were indeed arrested by authorities in the Gulf state.
Briefing the media on Wednesday in Tshwane, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya was asked about reports that SA planned to issue a démarche to the UAE’s ambassador.
Magwenya said there was no reason for government to issue the démarche to express its disappointment with the Emiratis.
He said South Africa was using UAE laws to appeal the denial of the Guptas’ extradition request, adding that Lamola was also engaging with the UAE’s ambassador to South Africa on the matter.
“There is no reason at this stage to consider a démarche when you do have legal options that are available to you to exercise, and you can engage those processes,” said Magwenya.
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