Fugitive Mehul Choksi challenges extradition in Belgium Supreme Court

Fugitive diamond dealer Mehul Choksi has challenged earlier than Belgium’s Supreme Court an October 17 ruling by the Antwerp Court of Appeal that had upheld India’s request for his extradition, calling it “enforceable”, officers stated on Monday (November 4, 2025).

In response to queries despatched by PTI, the general public prosecutor on the Court of Appeal in Antwerp stated Choksi filed an attraction within the Court of Cassation on October 30.

“This appeal is strictly limited to legal merits and will be judged by the Court of Cassation. During this procedure, the execution of the extradition is suspended,” Advocate General Ken Witpas stated in his response to PTI.

The Court of Cassation is the Supreme Court of Belgium.

On October 17, a four-member indictment chamber on the Court of Appeals in Antwerp discovered no infirmity within the orders issued by the pre-trial chamber of the district court docket on November 29, 2024, terming the arrest warrants issued by a Mumbai particular court docket in May 2018 and June 2021 as “enforceable”, permitting Choksi’s extradition.

The Court of Appeals dominated that fugitive Choksi, the principle accused in a ₹13,000 crore PNB rip-off, faces “no risk” of being denied a good trial or subjected to ill-treatment if he’s extradited to India.

Of the entire rip-off quantity, Choksi alone has siphoned off ₹6,400 crore, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has alleged in its chargesheet.

Choksi, who escaped to Antigua and Barbuda in January 2018, days earlier than the rip-off was detected, was noticed in Belgium, the place he had purportedly reached for searching for therapy.

India despatched an extradition request to Belgium on August 27, 2024, based mostly on arrest warrants issued by the particular court docket in Mumbai.

The public prosecutor on the Court of First Instance in Antwerp, Division Turnhout, initiated an motion on November 25, 2024, searching for the enforcement of arrest warrants issued by the Mumbai court docket.

The pre-trial chamber of the Antwerp District Court, Turnhout Division, in its order dated November 29, 2024, declared that the arrest warrants in opposition to Choksi issued by the Mumbai court docket have been enforceable, apart from the order associated to “causing the disappearance of evidence of the crime”.

When Choksi appealed in opposition to this verdict within the Antwerp Court of Appeals it additionally rejected his claims that he personally faces an actual, current and critical danger of being subjected to flagrant denial of justice, torture or inhuman and degrading therapy in India.

India has given a lot of assurances to Belgium relating to Choksi’s security, the costs that he would face throughout trial in India, jail preparations, human rights and medical wants.

The Court of Appeals had dominated that 66-year-old Choksi faces “no risk” of being denied a good trial or subjected to ill-treatment if he’s extradited to India.

Dismissing the attraction filed by Choksi in opposition to the district court docket, the Court of Appeals held that the businessman failed to supply “concretely plausible” proof of a “genuine risk” of torture or denial of justice.

The order was a powerful validation of India’s case searching for his extradition, with Choksi having the choice of interesting in opposition to the choice in Belgium’s Supreme Court, the officers stated.

The Court of Appeals has held that the paperwork Choksi submitted don’t substantiate his claims that he’s the topic of a political trial.