Spy chief loses extradition case

A Mongolian spy claims he was lured to the UK so he could be arrested and jailed
12 April 2012

Mongolian spy chief Bat Khurts, who claims he was lured to the UK so he could be arrested and jailed under a European Arrest Warrant, can be extradited to Germany, a judge has ruled.

Khurts, 41, is fighting extradition over claims he was involved in the kidnap, false imprisonment and return of a Mongolian national suspected of murdering a government official.

Khurts's legal representatives claimed during the case that Khurts, head of the executive office of Mongolia's National Security Council, should not have been detained as he was covered by diplomatic immunity. His lawyer Alun Jones QC told the court that Khurts was on official government business which protected him from arrest.

The legal team claimed he was duped into coming to the UK so he could be arrested and jailed under a European Arrest Warrant and extradited to Germany at the behest of the German government.

However, District Judge Quentin Purdy, sitting at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court, said Khurts did not have immunity either as a member of a special mission or as a high official per customary international law, and that extradition should proceed. His lawyers said he would appeal against the ruling.

Mr Jones had told the hearing that Khurts was told he was coming to the UK for high-level government talks on a new era of intelligence co-operation relating to Muslim fundamentalism. But instead, as soon as his Aeroflot flight touched down at Heathrow Airport last September, he was handcuffed and arrested.

Mr Jones said Khurts was a senior civil servant representing his government and was therefore covered under the Special Missions Convention which granted him immunity from detention and arrest. It is alleged he was involved in the kidnap of Enkhbat Damiran from France, driving him to Berlin, drugging him and flying him back to Mongolia.

Mr Jones accused the UK authorities of deliberately tricking Khurts to facilitate his visit to the UK so he could be arrested.

The judge said: "I have no doubt the issue of a business visa was deliberately to avoid/deny any claim of diplomatic immunity. Similarly I have no doubt the 'persistent' calls from the British Embassy over Bat Khurts' travel itinerary was to ensure Soca would be free to ensure an arrest in the UK with minimum fuss."

However he could not find any basis for finding improper conduct by any British officials amounting to "manipulating" the court's process in the exercise of enforcing cross-border criminal justice, for "really serious crime by whomsoever committed".

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