New Delhi: India's top court on Friday adjourned the case of a Frenchwoman wanted in Chile over the assassination of a key supporter of General Pinochet's military regime, after she was arrested and jailed in Delhi.
Chile is seeking the extradition of Marie-Emmanuelle Verhoeven, 56, for her alleged participation in a conspiracy to kill Senator Jaime Guzman Errazuriz on April 1 1991.
Verhoeven was arrested on February 16 in Uttar Pradesh state on the Indian border where she was entering the country from Nepal, and has since been in custody in the capital's Tihar Jail.
At the Supreme Court hearing on Friday, lawyers for the Frenchwoman sought her immediate release, arguing that her arrest and detention were illegal. The case has now been adjourned until November 16.
"It was a very detailed hearing with heated arguments over the question of her release," Verhoeven's lawyer Ramni Taneja, who is representing her on a pro bono basis, told AFP after the hearing.
"We are asking for her to be immediately freed from illegal detention. It is a matter of extreme urgency," she said.
The court was presented with a letter from the French Embassy in New Delhi, saying that it would ensure Verhoeven remained in India, should the court decide to release her ahead of a final judgement.
However, the letter emphasised the French government does not act as guarantor for its citizens in litigious matters abroad.
"The French Embassy will respect and abide by any decision taken by the Honourable Court to prevent the French national from leaving the country before the pronouncement of the final judgment," it said.
Treaty dispute
Verhoeven was arrested in India on the basis of an Interpol notice for her detention issued at Chile's request, with Indian authorities describing her as a "fugitive criminal".
Interpol later cancelled the notice after the Frenchwoman petitioned.
The Delhi High Court in September ruled for Verhoeven's immediate release, saying the extradition request was illegal, but shortly after she was re-arrested in prison.
The question of whether there exists a legally valid extradition treaty between India and Chile is a matter of heated dispute and is the subject of a parallel court case.
One extradition treaty cited by Indian authorities in the case dates back to 1897, when India was still under British rule.
A native of Nantes in western France, Verhoeven was previously arrested in Hamburg, Germany in January 2014 and detained for four months.
But Germany rejected Chile's request to extradite her -- something her Indian lawyers are pointing to as they try to thwart her extradition this time around.
Verhoeven lived in Chile from 1985 to 1995 where she worked to promote human rights, including for a United Nations commission in Latin America, and as a prison administration officer, before returning to France.
She says she is the victim of a "political vendetta" against her.
Guzman was a law professor and policymaker in General Pinochet's military dictatorship that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990.
He was shot dead as he left the Catholic University where he worked by members of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), a former armed group of the Communist Party.
AFP
