No request made yet to extradite RPK

Whitehall has yet to receive any application from Putrajaya to extradite fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin although the Malaysian government has hinted that the United Kingdom has refused to co-operate over the issue.

Malaysian government officials familiar with the extradition process said the Home Ministry has been unable to make the application because his alleged offence is not a crime in the UK.

“No official request has been made to bring back Raja Petra,” a source told The Malaysian Insider.

The British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has refused to comment specifically on Raja Petra’s case but issued a statement on Wednesday about the extradition request procedure.

“An extradition request from one Commonwealth country to another is governed by the London Scheme for Extradition within the Commonwealth. This contains a Dual Criminality Rule,” said the High Commission statement.

“A person sought will only be extradited for an extradition offence. For the purpose of this scheme, an extradition offence is an offence however described which is punishable in the requesting and requested country by imprisonment for two years or a greater penalty,” it added.

Questions on Malaysia’s ability to bring back Raja Petra were first raised by PKR supreme council member Datuk Zaid Ibrahim who claimed that Putrajaya was unable to state what offence the Malaysia Today news portal editor had committed.

Earlier this week, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein indirectly suggested that the British government has not agreed to extradite Raja Petra.

Under the British Extradition Act 2003, the requesting state has to submit an extradition request to the secretary of state who would issue a certificate for a hearing before a judge.

Apart from making sure that the person’s alleged conduct has to be a crime in both countries, the judge must also be satisfied that the extradition would not lead to violation of human rights under the British Human Rights Act 1998.

Raja Petra, who was facing a criminal defamation trial, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal in November last year by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court after the police failed to serve a warrant of arrest.

He was believed to have fled the country in May last year after he was charged with defaming Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the prime minister.

The member of the Selangor royal house had allegedly published an article linking the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu to Rosmah.