Former BPP chairman’s Durban extradition hearing set for January 21
"The session is adjourned until January 21" and João Rendeiro "will remain in detention," announced the judge in the case this Monday.
The former chairman of Banco Privado Português (BPP), João Rendeiro, is on January 21 to return to the Verulam court in Durban, South Africa, after Monday’s scheduled session was postponed, announced the judge in the case, which relates to the process of the former banker’s extradition to Portugal
“The session is adjourned until January 21” and the Rendeiro “will remain in detention,” Rajesh Parshotam said on Monday in a session that lasted only a few minutes.
The new date is one day after the deadline for the Portuguese authorities to formalise their request to South Africa for the fugitive former banker’s extradition, as stipulated in the European Convention on Extradition.
In Monday’s brief session only an update was given on the case, with prosecutor Navin Sewpersat saying that the state had received a fourth international warrant for Rendeiro’s arrest – after the three already announced in December.
Rendeiro entered and left the courtroom without speaking, afterwards returning to prison in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal province, where he had been held for the previous 28 days.
The BPP founder was in September sentenced in Portugal to more than five years in prison in connection with the collapse of the bank but had by that time fled the country. He was taken into custody in South Africa in December on an international warrant.
