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Quattrocchi to go on appeal

By P S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE DEC. 20. Ottavio Quattrocchi, Italian businessman wanted in New Delhi in connection with the Bofors payoff investigations and trial, will soon seek through his counsel, a final judicial remedy in the case concerning India's demand for his extradition from Malaysia.

Mr. Quattrocchi left Malaysia last weekend after the High Court in Kuala Lumpur held that there was no ground to sanction his extradition. However, Malaysia's Court of Appeal, on Monday, passed an ex-parte order that called for the impounding of Mr. Quattrocchi's passport pending a hearing on the petition filed by the Malaysian Government, which acted on behalf of India in the absence of an extradition treaty between the two.

India's plea before the Court of Appeal is that the High Court's judgment be reconsidered and that the extradition case be allowed to be reopened at the Sessions Court level.

Speaking over the phone from Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Quattrocchi's counsel,

Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, told The Hindu that he would be filing papers before the Court of Appeal to seek the revocation of the "injunction" on the Italian citizen's passport. He criticised Malaysia's Attorney-General for not having duly brought to the notice of the Court of Appeal that Mr. Quattrocchi was no longer in the country when the issue came up for hearing.

He would also ask the court to "strike out" or quash the "notice of appeal" that the Indian and Malaysian side had filed against the High Court's judgment that reconfirmed Mr. Quattrocchi's "right to liberty''.

He said Section 37 (6) of Malaysia's Extradition Act of 1992, which authorised the High Court to exercise a final say, would negate the new appeal against the dismissal of the original petition for Mr. Quattrocchi's extradition.

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