MALAYSIA: ITALIAN BUSINESSMAN OTTAVIO QUATTROCCHI FREED FROM INDIA EXTRADITION CHARGES OVER ARMS KICKBACK SCANDAL .

Record ID: 648782

  • Title: MALAYSIA: ITALIAN BUSINESSMAN OTTAVIO QUATTROCCHI FREED FROM INDIA EXTRADITION CHARGES OVER ARMS KICKBACK SCANDAL .
  • Date: 13th December 2002
  • Summary: (U2) KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA (DECEMBER 13, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: EXTERIOR OF HIGH COURT. 0.04 2. MV/TRACK: OF OTTAVIO QUATTROCCHI AND LAWYER, MOHAMAD SHAFIE ABDULLAH, ARRIVING IN COURT. (2 SHOTS) 0.28 3. SCU/LAS: OF HIGH COURT SIGN. 0.32 4. MV/TRACK: OF DEPUTY PUBLIC PROSECUTOR KAMARUL HISHAM KAMARUDDIN ARRIVING IN COURT. 0.39 5. SMV: REPORTERS OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE. 0.42 6. MV: PEOPLE LEAVING COURT. 0.51 7. MV: QUATTROCCHI LEAVING COURT WITH LAWYER. 0.56 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) QUATTROCCHI SAYING: "Very happy, very happy, I was expecting this result, I have great faith in the Malaysian judicial system. That's all I can say." 1.10 9. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER, MOHAMAD SHAFIE ABDULLAH SAYING: "There is a total failure to understand that extradition cases are in fact criminal based cases. And if anyone understands that from the beginning, this problem would not have arisen, because charges are absolutely essential. And without charges, there is a total breach of national justice, a breach of Article 5 of the constitution. If this had been realised from the beginning, this case would not have taken off more than 2 months to be discharged... Well, as far as we are concerned, it (the verdict) is completely final because Action 37 clearly says there is no appeal, from a review there is no appeal, the decision is final and conclusive." 1.55 10. VARIOUS: OF QUATTROCCHI AND LAWYER LEAVING HIGH COURT. (4 SHOTS) 2.21 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
  • Country: Malaysia
  • Reuters ID: LVA2ROHH316H4D9LSBBL5M303R8G
  • Story Text: Malaysia's High Court has freed an Italian businessman
    embroiled in a weapons kickback scandal which has dogged
    Indian politics for well over a decade.



    The court freed Ottavio Quattrocchi, friend of
    assassinated former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and
    resident in Malaysia since the early 1990s, on Friday
    (December 13).

    He had been accused in India of receiving 7 million U.S.

    dollars in illegal payments as a middle-man in the 1.2 billion
    U.S. dollar purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker
    Bofors AB in 1986.

    "Very happy, very happy, I was expecting this result, I
    have great faith in the Malaysian judicial system. That's all
    I can say," Quattrocchi told reporters after the judge pulled
    the plug on two years of extradition proceedings and set him
    free.

    Quattrocchi, 64, said he would be visiting a sick
    brother-in-law in China and his children in Italy before
    returning to Malaysia.

    The High Court refused India's efforts to force a review
    of a lower court's decision last week to discharge Quattrocchi
    because the case against him was too weak.

    Upholding the lower court ruling, High Court Judge
    Augustine Paul said the absence of charges against Quattrocchi
    in India, and the lack of a corresponding offence under
    Malaysian law, were fatal to India's case.

    Quattrocchi's lawyer, Mohamad Shafie Abdullah, said the
    case should have been closed since there were no charges filed
    against his client.

    "There is a total failure to understand that extradition
    cases are in fact criminal based cases. And if anyone
    understands that from the beginning, this problem would not
    have arisen, because charges are absolutely essential. And
    without charges, there is a total breach of national justice,
    a breach of Article 5 of the constitution. If this had been
    realised from the beginning, this case would not have taken
    off more than 2 months to be discharged... Well, as far as we
    are concerned, it (the verdict) is completely final because
    Action 37 clearly says there is no appeal, from a review there
    is no appeal, the decision is final and conclusive," he said.

    Malaysian Deputy Public Prosecutor Kamarul Hisham
    Kamaruddin, who argued India's case, said he would appeal, but
    added there was no restraint on Quattrocchi.

    The refusal to send Quattrocchi back to India marks a
    major defeat for New Delhi, where police have failed to send
    anyone to jail in the country's best-known corruption scandal
    despite years of investigation.

    The scandal helped bring down Gandhi's Congress government
    in 1989 and he was assassinated two years later campaigning
    for re-election.

    When his Italian born widow, Sonia, took over the party's
    leadership in the late 1990s, she swore to fight to remove the
    stain from her dead husband's reputation.

    Several other key figures in the scandal have also died
    since, but while the highly politicised issue has rumbled on,
    millions of young Indian voters have grown up with little idea
    what it is all about.

    Even Bofors has changed its name. It is now known as
    Kartongen Kemi Och Forvaltning A.B., though the Indian Army
    still uses Bofors howitzers on the Indo-Pakistan border.



  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register