HC quashes Briton's plea on extradition to Philippines in child trafficking case

The Delhi High Court Tuesday dismissed a plea of a 74-year-old British national, who is wanted in a child abuse and trafficking case in the Philippines, against the proceedings in a trial court here to extradite him to that country. The order was passed by a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and I S Mehta on the petition of Lennox James Ellis, who was arrested in Goa on June 9, 2016, on the basis of a Red Corner Notice issued by the Interpol at the behest of the Philippines government.

Ellis has been lodged in the Tihar Jail since July 11, 2016, where he was sent after being incarcerated in a Goa jail for over a month. He had entered India on January 15, 2016, on a valid tourist visa and was arrested at the Goa airport when he was about to board a flight to Bangkok. In his plea through advocate Sumeet Verma, Ellis had contended that he could not be extradited to the Philippines as the extradition treaty of India with that country was published in the Official Gazette on August 23, 2016, much after his arrest. Therefore, the Extradition Act cannot be applied to him retrospectively, he had contended. He argued that he had been incarcerated in India for nearly 17 months "arbitrarily and illegally and without any legal basis whatsoever".

Ellis also claimed in his plea that the issue of his extradition is between the UK and the Philippines, and "India has no nexus whatsoever in this case". The petitioner had alleged that the case was one of "political persecution and political vendetta by the highest authority of the Philippines". He further claimed that if extradited to that country, "he will be summarily executed and killed by the brutal regime" there. Ellis had sought quashing of the notification of the treaty with the Philippines, the extradition request sent by that country and proceedings going on in the trial court here to extradite him. Apart from that, the petition had also sought his immediate discharge and release from prison.

(With inputs from agencies.)