An Indian trial on Danish soil – an odd proposal in a somewhat bizarre case

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Jacques Hartmann is Lecturer in Law, Dundee Law School, Scotland. Previouslyjoined the School of Law in September 2012. Prior to that he worked as a legal advisor at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs

It is reported that India seeks to establish a tribunal at its embassy in Copenhagen to try a Danish national for conspiracy to wage war against the Indian Government. National trials in foreign countries phone number library are not without precedent. In 1999, after the Lockerbie case, two Libyan nationals were tried before an ad hoc Scottish court set up in a former US military base in the Netherlands. After the verdict in 2001, Professor Plachta in a piece in the European Journal of International Law (2001) questioned whether the case had opened the way to a neutral venue principle to solve future disputes involving the obligation of aut dedere aut judicare ). It has taken several years, but Plachta’s suggestion might be getting further support.

India has long been seeking the extradition of Niels Holck, a Danish national known in India by his alias ‘Kim Davy’. Holck is wanted for his involvement in the 1995 ‘Purulia arms drop’ where large quantities of weapons and explosives were dropped over the Purulia district of West Bengal in India. A British national and five Russians were subsequently arrested. Holck – the alleged mastermind of the operation – escaped. His co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. After pressure from their respective governments all six were later released (for UK parliamentary debate, see here).