The Hindu : Portuguese Court orders extradition of Abu Salem

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

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Portuguese Court orders extradition of Abu Salem

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. In a major legal victory for the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Portuguese High Court has ordered the extradition of Abu Salem, prime accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Official sources said that the Portuguese High Court had pronounced the order on Wednesday and it had since been conveyed to the CBI. Abu Salem still has the right of appeal against the High Court order before the Portuguese Supreme Court.

The green signal from the Lisbon High Court has come after a protracted legal battle in the past 16 months.

Abu Salem is wanted in a total of nine cases, two of which pertain to the CBI, three to the Mumbai Police and four to the Delhi Police. The extradition request, sent by the CBI through diplomatic channels, provided the details of all the nine cases. The voluminous papers were examined by the Portugese Attorney-General and the Ministry of Justice, Lisbon which was later sent to the High Court for a judicial verdict.

The extradition request was hotly contested by Abu Salem who engaged legal experts from the United Kingdom to fight his case. He had also expressed "fears" that he would not be able to get justice in India on the ground that he was a Muslim. The CBI had sent a detailed rejoinder to this.

Abu Salem, once a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees Ibrahim, was accused of criminal conspiracy and charged with distributing arms and explosives that were used later in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts that killed about 300 people and injured about 700. He obtained a fake passport in the name of Akeel Ahmed Azmi and fled India. He is also said to have got passports from Bhopal and Hyderabad. Later declared a proclaimed offender, Salem also had a Interpol Red Corner alert notice against him.

Along with his companion and Bollywood starlet, Monica Bedi, Abu Salem was arrested in Lisbon on September 18, 2002, for travelling on fake travel documents. His identity was confirmed by the CBI by fingerprints.

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