After UK judge blocks Assange's extradition, decision over Arif Naqvi case due

Decision on Arif Naqvi's extradition due after Julian Assange extradition blocked on same grounds

Murtaza Ali Shah

January 25, 2021

Pakistani business magnate, The Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi. Geo.tv/Files

Several expert witnesses testified about conditions at US prison facilities where Pakistani businessperson Arif Naqvi would likely be held
US request to extradite Assange was blocked on basis of the Australian editor's deteriorating physical and mental health conditions
An expert witness says "there are gangs and career criminals in every housing unit" in the United States

LONDON: A magistrate's court in the United Kingdom is set to announce later this week whether Pakistani business magnate, The Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi, would be extradited to the United States or not — just weeks after a similar request for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was blocked.

The United States' request to extradite Assange was blocked on basis of the 49-year-old Australian editor's deteriorating physical and mental health conditions, with District Judge Vanessa Baraitser saying she refused due to "fears that he could commit suicide", similar in Naqvi's case as his lawyers have publicly stated during the proceedings before the chief magistrate, Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot.

Judge Baraitser had ruled at the Old Bailey court on January 4, 2021, that Assange could not be extradited to the US due to risks pertaining to his mental health and took notice to the submissions by the editor's lawyers in relation to increased concerns that came to light in recent years over prison conditions at the US facilities.

Assange is wanted in the United States over 18 charges pertaining to the 2010 release of 500,000 secret files detailing the aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq through WikiLeaks.

However, despite arguments of clear political motivation and demonstrated possible interference, the judge did not include any of it in her decision, stating instead that while prosecutors met the tests for extradition, the US was "incapable of preventing him from attempting to take his own life if sent to prison there."

Also read: Arif Naqvi will be at the mercy of gangsters if sent to US prison, witnesses say

Similarly, several expert witnesses have appeared during the Arif Naqvi case proceedings to testify before the judge about conditions at the US prison facilities where the Pakistani businessperson would likely be held.

It is notable that while most white-collar detainees in the US — mainly Americans — are held in open prisons or camps, the same would not be the case for the Abraaj Group founder as he is a foreign national and would, therefore, be subjected to a medium-security prison at the very least.

Compromise on Naqvi's 'human rights'?

James Troisi, one of the expert witnesses who has held various senior positions at the ECC, was quoted as saying: "There are certainly bad apples in the mix of sworn staff [at US prisons]."

"There have been instances where sworn staff — either through cowardice or attentiveness — allowed physical altercations to continue without a response," Troisi testified. "I am aware of instances where sworn staff were guilty of using excessive force or taking out their bad day on detainees.

"It would be a very brief period of time before Mr Naqvi’s status would be common knowledge. There are gangs and career criminals in every housing unit.

"Mr Naqvi will be seen as a man of means and there will be people that will want him to provide commissary purchases and provide goods if he wants to eat tomorrow”.

Six expert witnesses in total have provided evidence to the UK court, noting that "sending Naqvi to a US jail would compromise his human rights, endanger his life by exposing him to potential violence, and likely result in no access to proper medication and adequate care for his health."

Apart from Troisi, others who gave video testimonies to support their written ones in the last hearing included Michael Baldassare, Joel Sickler, James Joshua Dratel, and Lindsay Lewis.

Naqvi’s lawyers have argued that prison conditions in the United States
"have worsened substantially, falling short of Article 3 of the Human Rights Convention — especially with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Baldassare, a lawyer and an expert witness, apprised the court of the situation at the Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF), saying it was “chaos”, while conditions were as bad as those at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility (MCC) in Manhattan and Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) in Brooklyn.

The ECC has been provided as an alternative to the other prisons because Naqvi’s lawyers had already raised serious concerns to the court about those facilities.

Naqvi, Baldassare told the court, would be "unable to get bail in the US because the way in which the system is weighed against him — he is neither a US citizen nor does he have strong community ties in New York." Further, it was still unclear as to what the prosecutors would seek by the way of bail.

Also read: Arif Naqvi unable to defend self at extradition trial due to US-UK political treaties

Sickler, another expert, commented that prisons are "psychologically and emotionally debilitating for prisoners in the US... prisons are inherently dysfunctional in the US" and that he was "already traumatised by the seven weeks spent in HM Prison Wandsworth."

Back in April 2019, Naqvi was arrested in London on a request from the United States over allegations of money-laundering, racketeering, and fraud. The Pakistani national faces close to an incredible 300 years in jail on 16 counts if extradited to America despite, as an earlier hearing was told, all investors getting their money back.

Naqvi has through his lawyers continued to strongly protest the disturbingly-long, 300-year sentence.

The hearing has concluded and a decision due soon.