Officers from Portugal’s Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) have nabbed the notorious Khalistani terrorist Paramjit Singh, alias Pamma, a conspirator in the 2010 bombings in Patiala and Ambala in northern India and the mastermind of a 2009 murder, or is he?
According to the SEF, the arrest warrant describes the man as dangerous and violent and "wanted for murder and bombings."
Based in England under political asylum since 1994, 42-year-old Paramjit Singh was staying at a hotel in Portugal with his family when he was arrested on Friday night. Paramjit Singh had an Interpol Red Notice against his name which alerted the SEF.
Early reports suggest that he passed through UK and Portuguese airport border control systems unhindered but was flagged up at SEF when he booked into his hotel. It is entirely possible that the UK authorites were keen for him to leave for a destination where he then could be arrested and deported to India.
India’s intelligence forces will want Singh extradited, in a similar manner to arch criminal Abu Salem, arrested in Lisbon in 2002 after he used his mobile phone which was traced by Portuguese intelligence services.
“The conspiracy to kill Rulda Singh was hatched in the UK by terrorist ‘Pamma,’ whose associates were arrested in Thailand and Malaysia last year,” a senior Punjab Police officer told Hindustan Times.
Rulda Singh was shot in July, 2009, in Patiala, northern India and succumbed to his injuries that August.
After leaving India in 1994-95, Paramit Singh visited Pakistan many times and became the main financier of Babbar Khalsa International, considered a terrorist group by Indian authorities.
Later, Paramjeet Singh allied himself to the head of the Tiger Force movement, Jagtar Singh Tara, which has links to armed groups based in Pakistan.
The arrest in Portugal of any high profile international terrorist is good news indeed for the SEF but brings into question the political asylum system in the UK and the country’s policy of harbouring international criminals who use the asylum system to enable themselves to continue criminal activities. Whether Singh is indeed such a terrorist mastermind remains to be proved.
Paramjit Singh’s mistake was travelling abroad when subject to an Interpol notice. Cocky or just stupid, the result has been the same and Singh may well find the Portuguese legal system as impenetrable as do most of the country‘s inhabitants (see below). He has travelled to Portugal before without hinderance and Interpol will need to explain why the Red Notice was issued after so many years and in cotravention fo the European asylum laws.
Subsequent to Singh’s arrest, he was presented at Évora Court, held over the weekend and again will be in court on Monday for an extradition hearing.
The international organisation Sikhs for Justice has appointed lawyer Manuel Luís Ferreira to defend Paramjit Singh whose extradition is sought by the Indian government.
Sikhs for Justice also has instructed its lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to go to Portugal for the Monday court hearing,
Paramjeet Singh’s laywers will oppose the extradition request but it is not known on what grounds.
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Extradition
The Portuguese system establishes a double deadline, which includes a first 18 days deadline followed by a second 22 days deadline. So, in total there is a maximum deadline of 40 days, at the end of which the request must be formally presented.
The Portuguese system provides for two forms of extradition:
a) Normal extradition, which implies two phases, the first one (administrative/political) being concluded by a decision taken by the Minister of Justice declaring the request admissible, and the second one, whose nature is judicial, that will take place in the Courts of Appeal, with the legal possibility of appeal to the Supreme Court and to the Constitutional Court;
b) Simplified extradition procedure, based on the consent of the person, only includes the first administrative/political phase and is concluded by a decision taken by the Court of Appeal that homologates the consent given by the person. This decision comes immediately after the decision from the Minister of Justice.
c) Exceptionally, if an international instrument of which Portugal is a State Party admits this possibility, the administrative/political phase can be dispensed with. In such cases, the extradition will be granted merely by homologation of the consent given by the requested person (it's the case of simplified extradition as provided for by the Schengen Agreements or as established by the 3rd Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Extradition).
Comments
Unless there was some arrangement for another amnesty back in India as perhaps an informer, that we do not know about, it seems so daft, as the original poster suggests, that he travelled under his own name. Or was there a sting to lure him out of British protection? Someone telling him -"In Portugal you will safe as houses as there are loads of Goa types and Sikhs there; one is now Prime Minister - so you will not stand out !"
http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/indian-arrested-in-algarve-wanted-for-murder-and-bombings/36991
If Paramjit Singh was active he would hide his real identity. He was granted asylum almost 20 years ago in U.K for fear of torture and human rights violation in India. He himself is a Sikh Genocide victim. His family was brutally killed. The British tipped off Interpol as he is off U.K shore. U.K. does not want to deal with this. Let Portugal send this man to the gallows in India !!
If he had become active again then it is more likely to be the Brits doing India a favour by 'encouraging' him to meet up with some old mates in Portugal ! Then tipping off Interpol. There is as yet no suggestion he travelled using an alias and all his family would also have to be aliased.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-Portugal-sign-extradition-treaty/articleshow/1143722.cms