Bofors: Malaysian court rejects plea

Malaysia's highest court on Wednesday rejected India’s appeal to extradite Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian businessman embroiled in th...

Malaysia’s highest court on Wednesday rejected India’s appeal to extradite Ottavio Quattrocchi, the Italian businessman embroiled in the Bofors kickback scandal.

The Federal Court decision sets back India’s efforts to bring back Quattrocchi to stand trial in the Bofors case. ‘‘The appeal is rejected,’’ Muhammad Shafee Abdullah said.

Quattrocchi, friend of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and resident in Malaysia since the early 1990s, has been accused of receiving $7 million in illegal payments as a middleman in the $1.2 billion purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986.

India, through Malaysian prosecutors, had moved to the highest court after the lower courts rejected the plea for Quattrocchi’s extradition saying that the charges against him were ‘‘open to doubt’’. ‘‘All things considered, we can only conclude that we are in agreement with the Court of Appeal on its findings,’’ Federal Court Judge Abdul Malek Ahmad said in dismissing the appeal. ‘‘We would, therefore, hold that no appeal lies to this court,’’ he said in a 61-page judgment.

Quattrocchi was not in Malaysia on Wednesday when the Federal Court delivered its verdict.