Danish authorities back arms smuggler's India extradition
Danish prosecutors said Friday they have
recommended the extradition to India of a smuggler who air-dropped weapons to
villagers in 1995.
A Danish court rejected prosecutors' previous request to send Niels Holck, 61, to India, ruling he risked being subjected to abuse.
Holck has admitted to air-dropping four tonnes of weapons to West Bengal in 1995 to help the locals fight the government.
He was the only smuggler who managed to escape after the Indian Air Force intercepted the returning plane.
The other smugglers -- five Russians and a Briton -- were sentenced in Calcutta to life imprisonment in 2000, but all were eventually released.
It is now up to the Danish court to decide whether to extradite Holck.
"Based on the information available to us and the investigations that have been carried out, we believe that the conditions set out in the Extradition Act have been met and we are now taking the case to court recommending the extradition of Niels Holck" to India, prosecutor Henriette Rosenborg Larsen said.
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A Danish court rejected prosecutors' previous request to send Niels Holck, 61, to India, ruling he risked being subjected to abuse.
Holck has admitted to air-dropping four tonnes of weapons to West Bengal in 1995 to help the locals fight the government.
He was the only smuggler who managed to escape after the Indian Air Force intercepted the returning plane.
The other smugglers -- five Russians and a Briton -- were sentenced in Calcutta to life imprisonment in 2000, but all were eventually released.
It is now up to the Danish court to decide whether to extradite Holck.
"Based on the information available to us and the investigations that have been carried out, we believe that the conditions set out in the Extradition Act have been met and we are now taking the case to court recommending the extradition of Niels Holck" to India, prosecutor Henriette Rosenborg Larsen said.
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