De Bruyn v Minister of Justice and Customs (Federal Court 2004)
2nd January 2004, 12:00 pm
South Africa requested extradition of De Bruyn. De Bruyn challenged his extradition claiming that it would be unjust given the high risk for men of contracting HIV in South African prisons. In support of his claim, De Bruyn produced a number of news articles discussing the high prevalence rate of HIV in South African prisons. The Minister of Justice rejected De Bruyn’s claim reasoning that there was no evidence that De Bruyn would contract HIV if he was extradited. De Bruyn appealed the decision to the Federal Court.

The Federal Court unanimously reversed the Minister’s decision finding that the Minister failed to take into account the humanitarian considerations in extraditing De Bruyn to South Africa where there was a significantly higher risk of contracting HIV in prison.

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