[2025] EWHC 2783 (Admin)

The appellant was born in Iraq on 21 August 1976. Having fled from Iraq in 2005 to Jordan, he lived and worked between 2008 and 2018 in Kuwait, together with his wife and their children who were born in 2008 and 2012. In mid-2019 they came to this country where they have resided since then. On 1 December 2021 he made an application to the Secretary of State for the Home Department (‘SSHD’) for asylum. On 28 March 2024 he was granted asylum on the basis of a well-founded fear of persecution in Iraq. He is known in this country and these proceedings as Adel Mohammed Badie. The name on his passport is Adel Mohammed Baday Abdulrazzaq. We will refer to him as Mr Badie.

There were two extradition requests made by the first respondent, the Government of Kuwait, certified under section 70 of the Extradition Act 2003 (‘the Act’). These were the first extradition requests made by the Government of Kuwait to the United Kingdom under the Extradition Treaty between the two countries which came into force on 10 March 2021 (‘the Treaty’). Kuwait is designated a Part 2 Territory under the Act. The first request is dated 25 May 2021 and seeks Mr Badie’s extradition to serve a sentence of 5 years imposed after conviction for fraud and money laundering. The second request is dated 15 June 2023 and seeks Mr Badie’s extradition to serve an additional five year sentence imposed for conspiracy to corrupt public officials enabling him to abscond from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia in breach of his bail conditions prior to the conclusion of the trial for the fraud and money laundering offences.

Mr Badie appeals, with the leave of Sir Duncan Ouseley, against two decisions in respect of these requests. The first appeal (‘the DJ Appeal’) is against the decision of District Judge Snow (‘the Judge’) dated 29 September 2023 to send the case to the SSHD under section 87(3) of the Act. The second appeal (‘the SSHD Appeal’) is against the decision of the SSHD dated 7 November 2023 to order extradition.