In a blow to his fight against extradition to India in connection with the Bofors arms scandal, Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi failed Tuesday to have evidence introduced from an Indian political analyst. Ottavio Quattrocchi is fighting an order to extradite him from Malaysia to India, saying he is being made a scapegoat in a politically motivated case and has done no wrong. Ruling against Quattrocchi, Malaysian High Court Judge Abdul Aziz Mohamad said on Tuesday that an affidavit by Indian political commentator Prem Shankar Jha was not admissible as evidence in current proceedings because its contents may be construed as hearsay or opinion.
The affidavit was not read out in court. Prosecutors opposed its inclusion, claiming it contained opinion, not fact. Quattrocchi is accused of corruption and conspiracy in India in connection with the 15-year-old arms scandal in which Swedish arms maker Bofors sold 400 artillery guns to the Indian army. Indian authorities say Quattrocchi, a friend of the family of India's then-prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, accepted $7.3 million from Bofors to facilitate the sale. Quattrocchi is free on bail, but has surrendered his passport. He has said that he offered to talk with Indian officials about the case before he left India in 1993, but received no response at the time. Malaysia and India have no extradition treaty. The trial, which has been mired in legal arguments since Quattrocchi's arrest in December last year, is the defense team's attempt to quash the extradition order. Also Tuesday, Quattrocchi's lawyers renewed arguments that the extradition order was illegal because Indian authorities never framed charges against him. Bureau Report