Arif Naqvi will not get a fair trial in US, expert tells court

LONDON: A key expert witness has told the Westminster Magistrates’ Court in Abraaj Group founder Arif Naqvi’s extradition hearing here that the Pakistani national will not just be denied basic human rights if extradited to the United States given inhumane prison conditions but also that he would not receive a fair trial. At the start of the final three days of Naqvi’s extradition hearing before District Judge Emma Arbuthnot, the expert witness and lawyer Michael Baldassare told the court that the situation at the Essex County Correctional Facility (ECCF) is “chaos”.

This relatively unknown facility is the jail that was put forward as an alternative by the US after Naqvi’s barrister, Hugo Keith, was able in July this year to illustrate just how bad the conditions at the Metropolitan Correctional Facility (MCC) in Manhattan and Metropolitan Detention Centre (MDC) in Brooklyn are, which led to the US giving two assurances at the previous hearing. First, that the prosecutors intended not to oppose bail for Naqvi if he was extradited and second, that if the US judge decided to send Naqvi to prison anyway on the grounds of “flight risk” then he would not be imprisoned at either of the two prisons. The court heard on Monday that reports were only commissioned to find out how bad these prisons are after “catastrophic” events such as Jeffrey Epstein’s death at the MCC and a power breakdown at the MDC which resulted in prisoners experiencing subhuman conditions and that although a prisoner had ended his own life at ECCF last year, no investigation has been made public.

The court heard that the ECCF is in New Jersey which is two bridges and a tunnel away — at least an hour long drive both ways from the SDNY courthouse.

Baldassare told the court that Naqvi will be unable to get bail in the US because the way in which the system is weighed against him — he is not a US citizen and does not have strong community ties to New York and it is still unclear as to what the prosecutors would seek by way of bail.

Baldassare said: “Nobody wants to go to Essex County. People avoid it as much as they can.” The expert witness told the court that during the trial Naqvi would be woken up at 4 am, shackled at 5 am and put onto a transport to New York for an hour long drive. He would then spend the day either in court or custody and then sent back to New Jersey after the proceedings ended for the day. This would be repeated for the duration of the trial which he estimated at close to three months, and that too after a period of years in which 2 terabytes of data about his company was investigated for evidence.

Mark Summers QC, who is representing the US, argued on the basis that the timing back and forth was inaccurate. Baldassare noted that it would be very difficult for Naqvi to consult with his lawyers during the trial, which is in itself a breach of his right to a fair trial, given that US discovery procedures are such that documentation, especially witness statements can sometimes be produced and given to the defence the night before (and to give instructions to his lawyers).

Asked by Hugo Keith, if Naqvi would receive a fair trial, Baldassare said: “No.”

Baldassare said as it stands today in USA, people are dying, lawyers are dying and nobody knows what is going on.

Originally from Karachi, businessman Arif Naqvi has argued before the extradition judge at the Westminster Magistrates’ that USA should not be allowed to extradite him for trial there in relation to the collapse of the Abraaj Group.

Naqvi was arrested in London in April 2019 on the US request. He faces allegations of money-laundering, racketeering and fraud. The Pakistani national faces close to an incredible 300 years in jail on 16 counts if extradited to the US as an earlier hearing was told. The hearing continues.