Canada’s Federal Court has partially allowed an extradition appeal from the Thai bank advisor believed to have precipitated the 1997 financial crisis in Asia.
Rakesh Saxena was extradited from Canada in November 2009.
Now, he claims Canada violated his rights as he was tried and jailed on charges other than those for which he was extradited.
Saxena was found guilty on five counts of securities fraud between 1992 and 1995. He was found to have siphoned off tens of millions of dollars from the now-defunct Bangkok Bank of Commerce (BBC).
At trial, the Bangkok South Criminal Court heard that Saxena set up dozens of Thai businesses, using them to secure loans from the bank to cover debts and running costs. However, the court was told, he channelled the money into personal accounts, mostly in Switzerland.
The bank’s collapse under US$3 billion in debts — partly accumulated by unsecured loans made to Thai politicians — created a loss of confidence in the Thai banking system that helped trigger Asia’s economic crisis a year later.
Saxena claimed he was being made the fall guy by bank executives related to the Thai royal family and by financial regulators embarrassed by the scandal.
He was charged in 1996 and fled Thailand but was arrested later that year in Whistler.
The extradition fight
The extradition battle was one of the longest in Canadian history.
In September 2000, the Supreme Court of British Columbia concluded there was evidence on which a court could convict Saxena, making him extraditable, Federal Court Justice William Pentney said in his March 4 ruling.
In March 2006, B.C.’s Court of Appeal upheld that decision from 2000.
Saxena’s application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed on Oct. 29, 2009. That exhausted his Canadian legal avenues of appeal and he was sent to Thailand.
In addition to his jail sentence, Saxena was fined approximately C$40,000. He was also ordered to compensate the BBC in the amount of about C$44.5 million.
His sentence expired on Oct. 30, 2019.
However, Saxena was convicted of further charges in December 2016 and sentenced to a further 20 years to be served consecutively with the earlier sentence. That sentence expires in October 2039.
Much of the new case involves what is known as a waiver of specialty. A federal government website says that, under that rule, the country handing over a person does so on the basis that the person will only stand trial for the charges that were identified and supported by evidence in the extradition request.
In 2011, Saxena complained to the United Nations Human Rights Committee claiming Canada had violated his rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The committee found Saxena’s rights had been violated, Pentney said
The new decision
The March 4 court decision said Saxena had claimed Canada’s extradition of him violated his Charter of Rights and Freedoms protections of life, liberty and security of the person.
In the action, he sought a declaration that his rights had been infringed, and also sought damages as a result.
The federal government asked the court to dismiss Saxena’s claim as it was outside time limits.
The court denied Saxena’s claim for damages but said he was entitled to a declaration that his rights had been infringed.
“He says that he started to suffer damages when he was convicted of the additional offences for which Canada waived specialty, which occurred on Dec. 20, 2016,” Pentney said.
The judge said Saxena was not entitled to damages but did say the claim for declaratory relief under the charter would remain in Saxena’s claim.
“(Saxena’s) claim for a declaratory judgment that the process by which Canada agreed to waive specialty breached his charter rights will not be struck out,” Pentney said.
