The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it would set up a special court to conduct the extradition enquiry ag-ainst the French woman, Marie Emmanuelle Verho-even, accused of killing Chil
The Centre on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that it would set up a special court to conduct the extradition enquiry ag-ainst the French woman, Marie Emmanuelle Verho-even, accused of killing Chilean senator in 1991.
Additional solicitor-general P.S. Patwalia told a bench, headed by Justice Kurian Joseph, that day-to-day trial will be held and it will be completed within a month. He said, “The judge shall be nominated within a day and we shall examine only one witness. Rest is upto her. The enquiry can be concluded in a month. If the magistrate comes to the conclusion that her extradition request by the Chilean government is bad in law, then it’s the end of the matter.”
Appearing for the French national, counsel Meet Malhotra argued that the extradition proceedings initiated were “bad in law because there was no treaty existing between India and Chile” when Ms Verhoeven was arrested. The bench asked the counsel to reply to ASG’s submissions and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
Wanted in Chile as a suspect in the killing of a senator, Ms Verhoeven is seeking to block her extradition on the ground that there is no valid extradition treaty. During the last hearing, the court had rejected her plea to release her temporarily till the Supreme Court finally decided the matter on the validity of her detention.
The bench was hearing a habeas corpus petition and a special leave petition filed by Ms Verhoeven, challenging her detention from February 17, 2015, on the basis of a Red Corner Notice issued by Interpol on the request of the Republic of Chile for her detention for the alleged offence committed in Chile. Subsequently, she was provisionally arrested on 24.02.2015 by an order passed by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Patiala House Cou-rts, under Section 34 of the Extradition Act. The Delhi high court quashed the order passed by the ACMM and directed her release, but the government passed a fresh order and continued her detention.
