Dubai court will decide Michel’s fate next month

The Court of Cassation of Dubai is final degree of litigation whose verdict is binding for all and not subject to appeal.

The fate of Christian James Michel, an accused in the Rs 3,600-crore VVIP helicopter scam who is challenging Indian government’s efforts to extradite him, will now be decided by the Court of Cassation of Dubai which is likely to hear his case next month, the date of which has still not been made public.

The Court of Cassation is the third and final degree of litigation in Dubai in which cases heard by the Court of Appeal are contested. In this court, litigants may appeal only on points of law such as violation of law, erroneous application or interpretation, and the appeal must be filed within 60 days of the judgment of the Court of Appeal. All decisions of Court of Cassation are final and binding for all the parties and are not subject to appeal.

“If the Court of Cassation decides in our favour and says that there is nothing that bars his extradition, then we are hoping that he (Michel) will be in India’s custody by the end of next month,” an official source told The Sunday Guardian.

If India is able to successfully extradite him, then Michel is likely to become one of the major issues in the run-up to the 2019 general elections that are less than 200 days away.

As per Dubai jurisprudence, there are three stages of courts: First Instance, Appeal and Cassation, in that order. However, extradition requests are special petitions that are usually referred to the Court of Appeal directly and do not have to go through the Court of First Instance necessarily.

In Michel’s case, who is a UK citizen, the Court of Appeal on 2 September, had ruled in favour of the Indian government and said that he can be extradited while stating, “The court decided the possibility of extraditing Christian James Michel to the competent authorities in the Republic of India.” Michel’s legal team then approached the Court of Cassation.

Sources said that the date of hearing of the case in the Court of Cassation is most likely to be slated for the second week of November and a decision on the exact date would be taken “soon”.

“Whatever may be the decision, the process in the Court of Cassation will not take much time. The court will basically decide whether or not to uphold the decision of the lower court to extradite him to India or overturn the decision and order a fresh trial by the Court of Appeal,” a source aware of the developments said.

Speaking to this newspaper, Rosemary Patrizi, the Italian lawyer who represents Michel in Dubai, said that they were confident that the Court of Cassation will “rule in their favour”.

“Multiple Italian courts have ruled that no evidence of any corruption taking place in the deal has been found. The Court of Appeal in Italy has found no evidence of any bribe being paid to Michel in the case. The Indian officials at that time had submitted whatever proof they had and also asked 8 million Euros as damage, a demand which was rejected. How can Michel then be proved of taking bribe? There is no ground of extraditing him,” she said.

On 8 January this year, the Italian appeal court had acquitted former Finmeccanica president Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini of charges of giving bribes to sell 12 AW101 helicopters to India. The operative part of the Milan Court of Appeal’s judgement had stated: “There isn’t sufficient proof.” The case, before reaching the appeal court, had gone through a first-degree trial, two appellate trials and a Supreme Court ruling in Italy.

The Indian government had also moved the Italian court as a civil party, claiming damages due to alleged corruption by top executives of Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland. Even as employees of Biecco Lawrie Limited ( BLL), a 100-year-old company, still hope for its revival, chances of that happening seem dim. Famous for manufacturing unique camouflage sets for warfare, shell cases and food containers during World War II, the 100-year- old British India Electric Construction Company Limited (BIECCL), which was established in 1919 and renamed as Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL) in 1970, is set to shut down.

The decision to shut down BLL—a vintage enterprise that once used to be the pride of the British—was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) here last week. The CCEA is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

S.K. Singh, who is a functionary at BLL’s Lucknow branch, told The Sunday Guardian: “The final decision about the closure of the company is yet to come and the employees of BLL are still hopeful that the incumbent government would adopt some measures to revive the company. The employees associated with this company are sad about the developments.”

Biecco, established 100 years ago in 1919 as BIECCL, started manufacturing