On Nirav Modi, UK High Court Rules Being Suicidal Doesn't Stop Extradition
NDTV
His legal team are yet to comment on any plans to appeal the High Court verdict. Meanwhile, Nirav Modi remains at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London since his arrest in March 2019.
Diamond merchant Nirav Modi today lost his appeal against extradition on mental health grounds as the high court in UK ruled that his risk of suicide is not such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering.
Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, who presided over the appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice earlier this year, said in their verdict that District Judge Sam Goozee's Westminster Magistrates' Court order from last year in favour of extradition was "sound".
The leave to appeal in the High Court had been granted on two grounds - under Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to hear arguments if it would "unjust or oppressive" to extradite 51-year-old Nirav Modi due to his mental state and Section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003, also related to mental health.
"Pulling these various strands together and weighing them in the balance so as to reach an overall evaluative judgment on the question raised by Section 91, we are far from satisfied that Mr Modi's mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him," the ruling states.
