Tori Towey

Radha Stirling, CEO of campaign group Detained in Dubai, said the highly-publicised case of 28-year-old Tori Towey this summer highlighted widespread judicial issues in the UAE.

“As illustrated in Tori Towey’s case and thousands of others, the UAE has a history of charging and convicting innocent individuals,” Ms Stirling said.

“They now have an avenue to pursue the extradition of Irish citizens under the same judiciary that has been noted for unfair investigations, charges and convictions without evidence, discrimination, human rights violations and torture.”

She added: “For years, the UAE has pursued British citizens through the courts costing the UK taxpayer hundreds of millions.

“Even where there is no dual criminality — i.e. debt — lengthy extradition proceedings are still part of the deal and each time a citizen is wrongfully pursued, they are at risk of being sent to a country noted for brutality within the prison system.

“Why should Irish citizens have to go through months, if not years, of legal proceedings because the UAE justice system pointed a finger?

“It’s all very well to posture the treaty as beneficial to Ireland in that they may succeed in extraditing a few targets, but at what cost? I guarantee the UAE will exploit the treaty at great human cost to the victims of their lawfare and to the Irish taxpayer.”

According to Detained in Dubai, financial defaults are effectively criminalised in the UAE because there is a widespread practice of reporting them to police as thefts, breaches of trust or fraud.

“The Irish courts will have to give significant time considering whether these extradition requests for fraud meet the criteria for dual criminality,” Ms Stirling said.

“Banks will use this as a way to go after their customers and citizens will be at genuine risk of extradition to the UAE.”

Ireland’s justice minister Helen McEntee and her UAE counterpart, His Excellency Abdullah Bin Sultan Bin Awad Al Nuaimi, signed the bilateral treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance on Monday.

Mrs McEntee said last week that the agreement of the treaties “will be of significant support in tackling organised crime and transnational drug trafficking gangs”.