Yagnesh Devani loses long and bizarre battle against £61m fraud extradition
A Kenyan oil tycoon wanted for a £61m fraud tried to use the
case of “miracle babies” scandal pastor Gilbert Deya to halt his extradition
from the UK.
Businessman Yagnesh Devani is wanted by Kenya over an oil
scandal that threatened fuel supplies to east Africa’s biggest economy and led
to high-level sackings.
Finally, his decade long fight to stop his extradition has
been lost.
He faces 19 charges of fraud in Kenya, one alleges Devani
and his firm Triton Petroleum disposed of millions of litres of fuel mortgaged
to Emirates National Oil Corporation (Singapore) without its permission.
In a last ditch attempt to halt the proceedings Devani
claimed that the Kenyan authorities could not be trusted to place him in a
suitable prison and cited the case of alleged child trafficker Deya who was
extradited to Kenya in 2017.
Deya, a self-proclaimed Archbishop, had set up a ministry in
London and claimed to be able give “miracle babies” to infertile women through
prayer.
But in reality, once the women were taken to Kenya they were
convinced they were in Labour then given babies taken from local women.
He was extradited on the grounds that he would be kept in a
self-contained cell, but six days after he left he claimed in a newspaper
interview he was being kept in a “filthy dungeon” with 11 other offenders and
was being eaten by flies.
Devani attempted to use this in London’s high court in a bid
to show his human rights would be breached if he was returned.
Despite a judge at an earlier hearing halting proceedings
due to the report, an appeal by the UK’s Secretary of State has been
successful.
Lord Justice Underhill has rejected Devani’s claims and has
ruled in favour of his extradition.
“The evidence before the judge was an online news report. It
is unverified and is no more than anecdotal evidence that Kenya had breached
assurances in respect of another person,” he ruled.
“Mr Deya was, to put it no higher, a witness whose
reliability was highly questionable.
“In my view, the weight to be attached to this news report
is limited. It has no special force. It does not begin to provide the
evidential weight required to undermine the specific assurances given by senior
office holders in Kenya. To make the finding which she did, the judge must have
attached considerable weight to this report which it simply does not carry.
“In my judgment, it was an assessment of evidential weight
which can only be described as perverse and as such represents an error of law.
The article did not undermine the specific assurances given by the Kenyan
officials. They are assurances which have been accepted in order to meet the
respondent's challenge that in extraditing Mr Devani his article 3 rights would
be breached.
“Accordingly, and for the reasons given, I would allow the
appeal and would determine that Mr Devani's extradition to Kenya would not
breach his article 3 rights.”
Devani, 55, was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police in
2011 on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.
Kenyan authorities allege the state-owned Kenya Pipeline
Company (KPC) released petroleum products worth £61 million to Devani’s
company, Triton Petroleum, in 2008.
The oil products were being held as collateral for bank
loans to KPC.
The head of KPC was dismissed in January 2009 and the
scandal caused ructions in Kenya’s fragile coalition government.
Police accused Devani of stealing £9.9m from Kenya
Commercial Bank, one of the banks that had loaned money to KPC, and issued an arrest
warrant for him.
Patrick Lumumba, the then director of the Kenya Anti
Corruption Commission (KACC), said at the time Devani’s arrest hailed a new
phase in the nation’s bid to stamp out corruption.
“His (Devani’s) arrest is a very major step against
corruption. It opens a new phase in the fight against corruption in Kenya and
is also a message to others — you can run but you can’t hide,” he had said.
Mr Lumumba said Kenya has had a long-standing request with
the British government for Devani’s arrest and extradition.
He said Devani may have multiple citizenships, but had
committed a crime in Kenya while living and working in the country and would be
subject to Kenyan laws.
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