Denmark's Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup has signed an extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates which it said would help to progress criminal cases including one involving a UK citizen who is charged with a multi-million alleged defrauding of the Danish tax authorities using so-called ‘cum-ex' trading schemes.
According to Reuters, a ministry spokeswoman confirmed that the individual in question is Sanjay Shah, a British citizen accused of defrauding Danish tax authorities of up to 7 billion Danish crowns ($1.04bn).
Shah, who lives in Dubai, denies any involvement, and his spokesperson referred to the extradition procedure as ‘political posturing.'
The Ministry of Justice statement said the agreement is to help ensure that suspected perpetrators of crimes related to Denmark are extradited and can be prosecuted here.
"The government has been working for some time to get a general extradition agreement between Denmark and the United Arab Emirates.
"The agreement aims to help specific criminal cases on the way. This includes on the extradition of one of the suspected perpetrators in the dividend tax case and the accused in the case of the insane motorist who hit and killed an officer in Langebro in 2019, respectively."
The session took place in the Ministry of Justice in Abu Dhabi, where the Emirati Minister of Justice Abdullah Sultan Saif bin Awad Al Nuaimi was also present.
Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup said: "Today (17 March) we have signed an agreement, which hopefully means that we can go a step further in two specific criminal cases, each of which in their own way has had far-reaching consequences.
"With the agreement, we signal to suspected perpetrators that it is useless to try to hide under warmer skies to avoid being prosecuted and held accountable for his actions. I hope that the agreement will contribute to us getting the suspected perpetrators to Denmark."
Other EU countries have recently concluded similar agreements with the United Arab Emirates. The Netherlands and Belgium, for example, entered into extradition and mutual legal aid agreements with the emirates in 2021.
