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England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions >> Devani v Republic of Kenya [2015] EWHC 3535 (Admin) (11 December 2015) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2015/3535.html Cite as: [2015] EWHC 3535 (Admin) |
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QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
Sir RICHARD AIKENS
____________________
YAGNESH MOHANLAL DEVANI |
Applicant |
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- and - |
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REPUBLIC OF KENYA |
Respondent |
____________________
Helen Malcolm QC and Mark Summers QC (instructed by CPS) for the Respondent
Hearing dates: 6, 7 & 8/10/2015
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Sir Richard Aikens:
The case so far
The background facts
"18.1 No party to this Agreement shall assign any part of its rights or obligations under this Agreement except with the prior written consent of the other party, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld.
18.1.1 KPC may delegate the operation of any of its facilities to any company, which agrees to operate under the terms and conditions of this Agreement and KPC Operating Procedures as well as the Guidelines for Aviation Fuel Quality Control and Operating Procedures for Joint Airport Depots and related industry guidelines.
18.1.2 TRITON shall be entitled to transfer ownership of Petroleum Products within the System to any third party having a Transportation and Storage Agreement with KPC. Such transfer of ownership will be subject to excess storage charges as provided in Clause 15.3.
18.1.3 Notwithstanding the foregoing, any rights or obligations conferred or imposed upon any of the parties to this agreement may be exercised fully by any Affiliate or Assignee of the party in question as if such Affiliate or Assignee were the party itself subject to the condition that the parties to this Agreement shall always remain liable for the proper exercise of any right and for the satisfactory performance of any obligation by their Affiliate or Assignee.
18.2 Financiers
TRITON may assign its rights under this Agreement for any specific cargoes to a financier/supplier of the cargo subject to the provisions of a Side Agreement on financed stocks on terms to be agreed upon the parties thereto."
"3. TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD shall advise KPC of the grade and quantity of products to be charged by the Financier of TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD.
4. TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD shall advise KPC of the authorized signatories of the Financiers to release such products to the account of TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD.
5. Upon receipt of such authorized instructions KPC shall release the so determined grade and quantity of products to TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD.
6. KPC shall issue regular statements of entitlements at agreed specific intervals to the Financiers of TRITON PETROLEUM CO. LTD by e-mail or other mutually acceptable mode of communication indicating stock balances on the account.
7. The Financier may request product(s) not to be released to ANY PETROLEUM (K) LTD upon irrevocable undertaking by Financier to pay all costs incurred by KPC as a result of the instruction for any duration of time. Statements of such held products shall be regularly issued to the Financier. These products shall be subjected to the system stock accounting procedures."
"KPC hereby consents to the security which has been or which will be granted by TRITON to the bank (financier), including any security over any of the TRITON positive entitlement stocks, Petroleum Products in KPC's custody and any of their rights arising in, under or in connection with the Transportation and Storage Agreement."
The Kenyan charges in outline
The references by the DJ to the Kenya proceedings so far against other parties
i) The first complaints were made by the Kenyan Ministry of Energy and by KCB in January 2009 to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission ("KACC").
ii) Those complaints resulted in charges being laid before the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi, these being the charges made in "Case 18". Those charges make allegations relating to dealings between Triton and ENOC.
iii) On 16 June 2009 further charges were laid before the Chief Magistrate's Court in Nairobi, under "Case 1151". Those charges allege abuse of collateral financing provided by KCB.
iv) Also on 16 June 2009, further charges were laid before the Chief Magistrate's Court in Nairobi under "Case 1150". These charges allege abuse of discounting facilities provided by KCB.
The issues to be decided
i) What is the correct test to be applied under section 84(1) of the EA, where a Part 2 requesting state has to demonstrate (to the criminal standard of proof) that "there is evidence which would be sufficient to make a case requiring an answer by the person if the proceedings were the summary trial of an information against" the requested person?ii) Is the test satisfied in this case in respect of each of the charges for which the extradition of Mr Devani is sought? We will consider this issue by reference to the relevant charges in each of the four "Cases".
iii) Are the extradition proceedings in the UK an "abuse of process"?
iv) Is there a "real danger" that, if Mr Devani were to be extradited, he would suffer a "flagrant breach" of his Article 6 ECHR rights in relation to proceedings in Kenya?
v) Would extradition of Mr Devani be contrary to his Article 3 ECHR rights because there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk of Mr Devani being subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment by reason of the prison conditions in Kenya?
Issue one: the correct test to be applied under section 84(1) of the EA?
Issue two: is the prima facie case test satisfied in respect of each of the charges alleged?
(i) The Fortis Charges
What was Fortis told?
Disposition of the "Chem Marigold" cargo
Mr Devani's evidence
Did Mr Devani act dishonestly?
Conclusion on case to answer and the "Fortis" charges
(ii) Case 1150
(iii) Case 1151
(iv) Case 18
Issue three: are the extradition proceedings an abuse of the process of the English court?
The "fresh evidence"
i) In Case 18 the prosecutor, Mr Okello, informed the Kenyan court at a hearing on 14 March 2011 that he was ready to proceed in the absence of Mr Devani. Counsel for one of the co-accused, Mr Kilonzo, gave notice that, if Mr Devani was ever subsequently extradited, he would object to the matter starting afresh in circumstances where the state had chosen to proceed with the case in Mr Devani's absence. The first prosecution witness was called to give evidence on that day and twelve prosecution witnesses have so far testified.
ii) In Case 1151 the first prosecution witness was called on 1 September 2014 and three witnesses have so far given evidence.
iii) In Case 87 the first prosecution witness was called on 14 October 2014 and again three witnesses have so far given evidence.
iv) In Case 1150 no one had yet testified at the time when Mr Nyiha obtained a copy of the record of the proceedings but prosecution witnesses were scheduled to give evidence on four days in July and September 2015.
The application to admit the "fresh evidence"
"(a) … evidence is available that was not available at the extradition hearing;
(b) … the evidence would have resulted in the judge deciding a question before him at the extradition hearing differently; [and]
(c) if he had decided the question in that way, he would have been required to order the person's discharge."
Allegation of misleading the court
i) In an affidavit dated 21 August 2012, Mr Okello said that the core issue was whether the documents placed before the court by Kenya established a prima facie case sufficient to make an order for the extradition of Mr Devani "to stand trial".ii) Kenya's final written submissions dated 14 May 2014 stated (at paragraph 188) that Mr Devani "would be tried before a judge or Chief Magistrate who had all gone through the vetting process …"
These statements are said to have implied that there would be only one trial, starting after extradition, rather than four separate trials which had already begun.
Was the court below misled?
i) There is no substance in the allegation that the prosecuting authority misled the court below about what has happened in the Kenyan proceedings; andii) The evidence about the Kenyan proceedings adduced on this appeal was "available" at the extradition hearing within the meaning of s.104(4)(a) of the EA insofar as the evidence relates to events which occurred in the proceedings before the High Court judgment was delivered on 28 May 2014 but not insofar as it relates to subsequent events.
Mr Okello's evidence
i) Not only Mr Okello but also Mr Kamlus gave evidence that he had never met or spoken to Mr Devani.ii) The evidence of Mr Okello and Mr Kamlus that the alleged meetings did not take place was corroborated by witness statements from other officials who accompanied Mr Okello and Mr Kamlus on the trip to London and were with them throughout. Those witnesses explained that between their arrival in London on the overnight flight from Nairobi at 7am on 23 May 2010 and their departure on 25 May 2010, the party stayed in the same hotel and due to their heavy workload in preparing evidence did not leave their hotel other than to visit the Kenya High Commission and attend meetings with the Crown Prosecution Service.
iii) Mr Devani gave inconsistent evidence about when and where the alleged meetings took place, and the DJ made adverse findings about Mr Devani's credibility which are not capable of challenge on this appeal.
Conclusion on the abuse of process issue
i) We have already mentioned that Mr Jones did not – quite rightly in our view – attempt to maintain on this appeal any argument that Kenya is seeking Mr Devani's extradition in bad faith or for purely political reasons, without any genuine belief that there is evidence which justifies his prosecution for criminal offences. In these circumstances, even if Mr Devani's evidence about the alleged meetings in London and the opinions allegedly expressed by Mr Okello and Mr Kamlus at those meetings had been true, it could not have afforded any defence to the request for his extradition.ii) For reasons that we will give in addressing the Article 6 issue, the developments in the Kenyan proceedings which Mr Okello is alleged to have concealed – in particular that separate trials of the four cases had already started – also do not provide Mr Devani with a defence to the extradition request.
Issue four: would the extradition of Mr Devani be contrary to his Article 6 rights?
Issue five: Mr Devani's Article 3 rights and prison conditions in Kenya
"I am satisfied that the conditions in Kamiti are Article 3 compliant: I am further satisfied that Mr Devani will be afforded the same attention as other high-profile inmates and be housed in the special unit (with facilities such as a single cell) and that the incident [of inter-prisoner or prisoner on warder violence] in 2008 was an isolated incident which may well have acted as a catalyst so as to focus the attention of the Kenyan authorities on improving conditions not only within the general prison estate but within Kamiti prison itself."
The DJ therefore dismissed the Article 3 challenge.
Conclusion and disposal
Note 1 Bailment and attornment respectively require possession and delivery of possession of goods, but we note that the definition of “goods” in section 41(1) of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) includes “an undivided share in goods”. [Back] Note 2 See for example: Belbin v France [2015] EWHC 149 (Admin) at [43]-[59] and Spain v Warne [2015] EWHC 981 (Admin) at [17] and [41] and the cases there cited. [Back] Note 3 [2008] 1 AC 920. [Back] Note 4 See sections 78(2)(d) and 137 of the EA. [Back] Note 6 [1981] 1 WLR 1039 at 1042. [Back] Note 7 [2014] EWHC 957 (Admin). Blake J agreed with the PQBD’s judgment. [Back] Note 8 A contractual duty on Triton would not in any event have imposed any duty on Mr Devani personally. [Back] Note 9 Adjustment of stock entitlement: see paragraph 14 above. [Back] Note 10 [2013] EWHC 819 (Admin) at [31] to [46] in the judgment of the court given by Kenneth Parker J. [Back] Note 11 Part of the Overseas Primar cargo is also the subject of charges under Case 18. [Back] Note 12 There are no charges relating to this part of the consignment, consisting of 1,686.21MT. [Back] Note 13 That is the subject of count 2. [Back] Note 14 See Belbin v France [2015] EWHC 149 (Admin) at [43]-[44]. [Back] Note 15 [2009] EWHC 231 (Admin). [Back] Note 16 (2012) 55 EHRR 1, para 261. [Back] Note 17 [2013] 1 WLR 2324, paras 29-32. [Back] Note 18 [2015] EWHC 28 (Admin). [Back] Note 19 This was an article entitled “A critical overview of the Kenyan Prison System: understanding the challenges of Correctional Practice” by Jasper Edward Nyoura and Margaret Njeri Ngugi in Vol 12 (2014) of the International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, pages 6-12. [Back]