FILE PHOTO: A man passes an Interpol logo during the handing over ceremony of the new premises for Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation, a research and development facility, in Singapore September 30, 2014. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo
South African prosecutors on Monday announced a key step in their bid to extradite Indianborn brothers who were allegedly at the centre of a massive web of corruption.
The three Gupta brothers — Ajay, Atul and Rajesh — are at the centre of a longrunning probe into the embezzlement of state assets under former president Jacob Zuma.
In a statement, the prosecution authority’s chief investigator, Hermione Cronje, said Interpol had issued a “red notice” against two of the brothers, Atul and Rajesh.
Red notices are a global alert enabling law enforcers to arrest a person sought for prosecution or serving a sentence and detain them pending extradition.
The three brothers are at the centre of a 2016 graft report by South Africa’s anticorruption watchdog, which claims they paid bribes in exchange for massive state contracts and influence ministerial appointments.
They fled South shortly after a judicial commission started in 2018 and are suspected to be in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Last month South said it was close to finalising an extradition treaty with the UAE.
The third brother, Ajay, who is not named in the red notice, is part of a separate case, Cronje’s office said.
His siblings Atul and Rajesh Gupta are being sought in connection with a 25millionrand ($1.76 million / 1.48millioneuro) contract paid to a Guptalinked company, Nulane Investments, to conduct an agricultural feasibility study, it said.
The red notice also applies to Atul Gupta’s wife, Chetali.
The alert came as Zuma sought to avoid jail after he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for contempt after failing to appear before anticorruption investigators.
In 2019, the US Treasury slapped sanctions on the Guptas, effectively freezing their assets under US jurisdiction, and forbade Americans — particularly international banks with any US operations — from transactions with them.