The Ministry of Justice & Correctional Services yesterday said a request by the UAE to resubmit an extradition application for the Gupta brothers is stalling the process to bring the siblings back to SA.

The Citizen reports that the Ministry provided an update on the status of number of extradition cases to and from SA.

They include a request from the Criminal Tribunal to extradite former Rwandan police officer Fulgence Kayishema, accused of genocide,  and the case of self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and his wife Mary.

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola met with his counterpart Abdullah Sultan Awad Al Nuaim and other UAE prosecuting authorities in June to discuss the extradition of Rajesh and Atul.

However, his spokesperson Crispin Phiri said the UAE Central Authority had sent a request to SA to urgently resubmit a new extradition request for the Gupta brothers.

‘We want clarity first on what went wrong with our extradition request to start off with. And this is because when we submitted our extradition request the first time, we acted on instructions of the UAE government .. they guided us through the process,' he said.

He notes that ‘it is our view that a new extradition request can only be submitted to the UAE once the questions raised in our Note Verbale dated 19 June 2023, have been sufficiently answered by the UAE’.

‘We have said previously that in the event where we don’t get any joy on these extradition processes from the UAE, we reserve our rights to escalate this (matter) to the United Nations … in terms of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, which SA and the UAE are signatories to’.

The Citizen reports that Rajesh and Atul Gupta are accused of using their relationship with the former President to profit financially and influence senior government appointments.

Full report in The Citizen