Extradition row: Portugal court asks Abu Salem to add respondents

MUMBAI: The Administrative Court of Portugal has written to extradited gangster Abu Salem, asking him to amend his petition and make the External Affairs Ministry of Portugal and the Attorney General of Portugal the respondents.

Salem, deported to India in 2005, has moved the Administrative Court seeking a direction to the Portugal government to execute the order cancelling his extradition.

"We had moved the Administrative Court of Portugal seeking to execute the order of Portugal Supreme Court (to cancel the extradition)," said Salem's lawyer Saba Qureshi.

The court asked him to make External Affairs Ministry of Portugal and Attorney General parties to the petition, advocate Qureshi said here.

In January 2012, Portugal's Supreme Court had upheld lower court's order which cancelled Salem's deportation for "violation" of extradition treaty by Indian authorities which pressed charges attracting death penalty against him.

Salem, an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, was extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005, after a prolonged legal battle.

On February 16 this year, a court here convicted him for the murder of city-based builder Pradeep Jain and sentenced him to life imprisonment.