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Christian Michel seeks bail on basis of UN report that said his detention was arbitrary
Michel’s application for unconditional bail hinges on the report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which operates under the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In its findings released in Geneva last month, WGAD concluded Michel’s detention was arbitrary and violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Christian Michel, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal, has sought bail in cases registered against him by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate on the grounds that a UN panel had ruled that his detention was arbitrary.
The bail application is expected to be listed for hearing in the court of special judge Arvind Kumar on Thursday, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.
Michel, a British national, has been held in India since December 2018 after being extradited from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He is currently in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
He was living in Dubai when India sought his extradition for involvement in alleged irregularities in the 2010 deal to acquire 12 AgustaWestland helicopters worth 556.2 million euros for the transportation of VVIPs. At the time, Michel was a middleman and an external consultant for a subsidiary of AgustaWestland. He has denied all the charges levelled against him.
Michel’s application for unconditional bail hinges on the report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), which operates under the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In its findings released in Geneva last month, WGAD concluded Michel’s detention was arbitrary and violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
WGAD was scathing in its evaluation of the handling of Michel’s case by the governments of the UAE and India and said both countries should “accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law”.
Indian officials haven’t formally reacted to WGAD’s findings but even before the formal release of the report, the external affairs ministry said the group’s conclusions were based on “limited information, biased allegations from an unidentified source and on an inaccurate understanding of India’s criminal justice system”.
Michel’s bail application, filed on Tuesday, noted that he had spent two years and four months in custody in India and another 50 days in Dubai during his extradition proceedings and that he had undergone “almost 600 hours of custodial interrogation” by the CBI and ED. The application said others arrested in the same case had also been granted bail.
The application further said Michel will be available to join “any future investigation and trial, as and when required, and has never sought to evade the process of law”.
