- Thursday, December 26, 2024
Niels Holck was the only one of seven smugglers who managed to escape after the Indian Air Force intercepted their returning plane
By: Shajil Kumar
A DANISH court said on Thursday it had rejected a request by India for the extradition of a Danish national wanted in a 1995 weapons smuggling case.
India has for years sought to have Niels Holck extradited to stand trial on suspicion of air-dropping four tons of weapons in West Bengal’s Purulia district.
Sending Holck to India would violate Denmark’s extradition act due to a risk that he would be subjected to treatment in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, the court ruled.
A Danish public prosecutor, who last year nominated Holck for a handover to stand trial in India, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Holck previously admitted in a Danish court that he was onboard a Russian cargo plane with six others, smuggling weapons into West Bengal on the night of December 17, 1995.
He was the only one who managed to escape. The others, five Russians and a Briton, were sentenced in Kolkata to life imprisonment in 2000, but all were eventually released.
Holck was arrested in Denmark in April 2010 after Danish authorities reached a deal with India over the terms of his extradition, including a promise that he would not be given the death penalty and would serve any sentence in Denmark.
But a Danish district court in 2011 overturned the authorities’ decision, saying he risked mistreatment in India. An appeals court later upheld the district court’s ruling. (Agencies)
