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New Delhi/Mumbai, Jan 17 (PTI): Portugal’s Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation against a lower court’s ruling that the extradition treaty with India had been violated in underworld don Abu Salem's case when the Indian government filed new charges that attract the death penalty.
However, a CBI spokesperson said in Delhi on Tuesday that the dismissal of its appeal does not affect the extradition of Salem, who is now in a Mumbai jail, or the trial he is facing in the 1993 blasts case.
The CBI said the Saturday order by the Portuguese court merely raises a technical point. Salem had been extradited from Portugal to India in November 2005 after a three-year legal battle during which India gave an assurance that Salem would not be given the death penalty.
The CBI spokesperson said the agency may exercise its the option of filing an appeal before the Constitutional Court in Portugal.
Following the Portuguese Supreme Court’s order, Salem moved a TADA court in Mumbai seeking closure of the trial against him. “We have moved an application seeking closure of trial as continuing with the trial will be illegal,” said Salem's lawyer Rashid Ansari in Mumbai. Salem's plea is expected to come up on Wednesday.
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