"Have independent judicial system which will decide on case": Czech Foreign Minister on Nikhil Gupta's extradition in Pannun plot
Feb 23, 2024
New Delhi [India], February 23 : Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky, who is currently in India, said on Friday that his country has an independent judicial system that will decide on the case of the Indian accused in the alleged assassination attempt to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
"We have an independent judicial system that will decide on the case," he told ANI.
Notably, a Czech court has ruled that Prague can extradite to the United States, the 52-year-old Indian man, Nikhil Gupta, who is accused by the United States of involvement in the alleged attempt to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Czech-based media outlet Seznam Zpravy reported, citing judicial database Infosoud.
However, the extradition of Gupta still requires the approval of Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek, the publication reported.
Gupta was detained in Prague in June last year based on a bilateral US-Czech extradition treaty.
According to the Czech news website, Gupta is now in Prague's Pankrac prison.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is an India-designated terrorist who holds American and Canadian citizenship.
As per the US Justice Department indictment, Indian national Nikhil Gupta is currently in custody and has been charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Czech authorities arrested and detained Gupta on June 30, under the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and the Czech Republic.
The US Justice Department had claimed that an Indian government employee, who was not identified in the indictment filed in a federal court in Manhattan, had recruited Indian national Nikhil Gupta to hire a hitman to allegedly assassinate Panun, which was foiled by US authorities.
The US Justice Department claimed that Gupta is an associate of CC-1 (an unidentified person who directed the alleged plot), and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1.
The indictment claims CC -1 directed the assassination plot from India.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of Czech also spoke on mutual trade between the nations and said that the way it is growing shows a thriving relationship between the two nations.
Lipavsky said, "Today I met India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and we both stated that there is a thriving relationship between India and the Czech Republic, the number of mutual trade is growing, the number of Indian students in Czech Republic is growing..."
"We are on a very good trajectory...we have also identified new opportunities so that we can work on that," he said.
