Sanjeev Chawla appeals extradition to European Court of Human Rights

Sanjeev Chawla, set to be extradited from the UK to India within days to face match-fixing charges, has filed a plea with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in an effort to put off his extradition.

Chawla had lost a last-ditch High Court appeal on human rights grounds against former UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid's extradition order at a hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice in London last month, with a court order dated January 23 setting a 28-day deadline for him to be sent back to India.

The 50-year-old British national, a key accused in the match-fixing scandal involving former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, must therefore be extradited from the UK by February 19.

But, meanwhile, he has approached the Strasbourg, France, based ECHR on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

"On 29 January 2020 Chawla made a request for an interim measure to stop his extradition. The court has not taken any decision yet," said a spokesperson for the ECHR.

"The applicant relies on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the spokesperson said.

The ECHR had sought additional assurances from the British High Commission in New Delhi that Chawla's rights as a British citizen would be upheld, including regular consular access.

According to officials familiar with the process, the assurances have been speedily conveyed and a decision is expected from the ECHR within this week.

"The Secretary of State signed the order for Chawla's extradition to India in February 2019. Due process will now be followed," a UK Home Office spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a team from Delhi Police remains on standby and will be escorting Chawla to India once the formal paperwork is concluded soon after the ECHR decision.

Chawla's legal team have sought to argue against his extradition to India on human rights grounds in the UK courts ever since his arrest back in June 2016.

Most recently, at an appeal hearing on January 16, a two-member High Court panel said they accepted the assurances provided by the Indian government that the accused will be accommodated in a cell to be occupied exclusively by him, with proper "safety and security and complying with the personal space and hygiene requirements the court expects.

India had also made further guarantees on medical facilities and protection from intra-prisoner violence in Delhi's Tihar Jail, where he is to be held ahead of his trial.

"Nothing suggests that there is any real risk of injustice, nor are the circumstances exceptional. Indeed, the material does not even demonstrate reasonably arguable grounds for contending that there would be a real risk of ill-treatment contrary to Article 3 ECHR," Justices David Bean and Clive Lewis said in their judgment handed down last month.

Chawla's case will be the first high-profile extradition of its kind under the India-UK Extradition Treaty, signed in 1992.

Following an extradition trial in October 2017, Westminster Magistrates' Court in London had concluded that while Chawla had a prima facie case to answer, his human rights could not be guaranteed in Tihar.

This ruling was successfully challenged in the High Court by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), arguing on behalf of the Indian authorities.

According to court documents in the case, Chawla is described as a Delhi-born businessman who moved to the UK on a business visa in 1996, where he has been based while making trips back and forth to India. After his Indian passport was revoked in 2000, he obtained a UK passport in 2005 and became a British citizen.

Chawla is alleged to have played a central role in conspiring with Cronje, the late South African cricket team captain, to fix a South African tour to India in February-March 2000.