ABU DHABI // The Appeals Court yesterday refused to extradite an Italian businessman wanted in his home country, who has argued that his country's judicial system is corrupt.
Italian authorities requested the extradition through Interpol after the businessman moved to the capital with his wife in July last year.
The Appeals Court was investigating the legitimacy of the request, and has ruled against it.
During court hearings the businessman told the judges several times that he did not trust the justice system in Italy and wished to be tried in Abu Dhabi.
He claimed the public prosecutor in Savona, northern Italy, whose son was his property agent and his contracting company's main competitor, filed charges against him because he denounced him in front of the Italian president.
He claimed this motivated the prosecutor to accuse him of driving his company to bankruptcy to avoid paying taxes.
But the businessman said he had receipts for his paid taxes and was due to hand them over to the court. It was not clear whether he provided them before yesterday's hearing.
The man said he trusted the UAE's justice system and showed the court documents to try to prove the Italian system was corrupt.
One document claimed the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that 800 cases had been unjustly settled by Italian courts.
He also presented a newspaper article about eight Italian judges who were facing lawsuits for alleged corruption.
His lawyer argued the Appeals Court was not specialised in handling an extradition case and that it should be referred to a federal court.
