Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb agreed that Ibori, who spent years in UK jail for money laundering, was unlawfully held for one day, 18 hours and 10 minutes between December 20 and 21 last year.
She however ruled, in a way that mocked Ibori’s claim, that he is only entitled to a nominal £1 of the sum. Ibori had claimed £4,000 in damages.
She said the Home Secretary “failed to have regard to her limits to detain” as attempts were made to claw back millions from the fraudster.
But in rejecting Ibori’s bid for thousands in compensation, the judge ruled:
“There is no compensatory loss to Mr Ibori and I fix nominal damages at £1.”
Ibori was extradited to the UK for trial in February 2012 and prosecuted on the basis of evidence from the Metropolitan Police. He pleaded guilty to 10 serious criminal charges over the appropriation of massive amounts of public funds during his two terms as governor of Delta State, Nigeria.
He was sentenced in April 2012 at Southwark Crown Court to 13 years imprisonment, and an order for his deportation as a foreign criminal was made in May 2015.9
Ruling on Monday that Ibori had been held unlawfully for almost two days, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said it followed a failure to hold effective confiscation proceedings.
It was in the context of awaiting the making of an assets confiscation order, and likely subsequent efforts to “recoup” a sum estimated to be at least £57m, that the decision to detain Ibori was made.
The judge ruled: “In this case, the secretary of state has been wrong-footed by the failure of the prosecution to achieve determination of its confiscation proceedings against Mr Ibori prior to his release from prison on licence.”
Culled from the Evening Standard
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