Picture for illustrative purposes only. ARCHIVE

French national Mehdi Charafa, a suspected drug trafficker, is set to be extradited from the UAE to France after exhausting all legal avenues to contest his deportation, authorities confirmed. In January, the UAE Federal Supreme Court ruled that Charafa would be handed over to French authorities, upholding an earlier decision by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal. Charafa had challenged the ruling but failed to overturn it. The extradition follows an international legal cooperation agreement between the UAE and France, signed in 2007, to combat cross-border crimes, including drug trafficking and money laundering. “The UAE is committed to strengthening international legal and judicial cooperation by following best practices to combat organized crime,” a government spokesperson said. Charafa faces charges in France related to drug smuggling and financial crimes linked to the narcotics trade. French authorities issued an international arrest warrant against him, prompting the UAE to detain him pending legal review. Extradition processes in the UAE involve multiple stages of legal scrutiny. The defendant is initially presented before a local court, and if the extradition is approved, they have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court. In Charafa’s case, both courts ruled against his appeal. Charafa is expected to be transferred to France in the coming days, where he will face trial for the pending charges. ICA/Expat Media
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