ABU DHABI // A British court has rejected an extradition request from the UAE for a man accused of threatening to publish naked photos of his estranged wife on the internet.
The judge at Westminster magistrates court in London ruled there was a risk that Yasir Afsar, 36, would be “subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” if sent back to the UAE.
The court also found that Mr Afsar, a British Pakistani, was “likely to be denied a fair trial” and would “suffer prejudice because of his ethnicity”.
The judge, M?C Zani, said the “substantial and impressive expert evidence” presented by Mr Afsar’s lawyer, Ben Cooper, “has not been challenged in any way by the UAE authorities”.
Counsel for the UAE Government, Peter Caldwell, argued that visits from UK consular officials would protect Mr Afsar’s rights, and that the UAE “would not wish to jeopardise its relationship with the UK” by mistreating Mr Afsar.
The judge said he disagreed.
“I am entirely satisfied that Mr Afsar has amply demonstrated that in the event of his return his … rights would be breached,” Mr Zani said.
Mr Afsar, a former expatriate in Dubai, ran into financial difficulties and left his wife in July 2006, a year after they married.
He is accused of making threats to his estranged wife in 2007 and 2008 that unless she sent him money he would post naked photographs of her on the internet.
His wife refused to comply and on October 3, 2008, a friend contacted her to say that she had received an email from Mr Afsar with an attachment that was a naked photograph of his wife.
Anyone convicted in the UAE of offending family principles or values by publishing online news or pictures that infringe on privacy or family life faces a prison sentence of between one and five years, and a fine of at least Dh50,000.
mswan@thenational.ae
