Quincy Promes' lawyer: Hard to predict if Dubai will extradite footballer

The outcome and duration of the Netherlands' request to extradite footballer Quincy Promes cannot be predicted. That is what his Dutch lawyers, Sophie Hof and Robert Malewicz, said about their client's arrest in Dubai.

According to them, extradition proceedings often take a long time. An independent judge in Dubai will consider the Dutch request, they wrote in a statement. The procedure also has “many formal steps and requirements,” making it difficult to say anything about how it will end.

Promes has been convicted twice by courts in the Netherlands. Last year, he was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for a stabbing at a party in Abcoude, where he stabbed his cousin in the knee. And last month, the court in Amsterdam imposed a six-year prison sentence on the former Ajax player for involvement in the import of cocaine through the port of Antwerp.

The lawyers say that the drug case was the reason for the Netherlands' extradition request to the United Arab Emirates. The country only issued an arrest warrant in that case. They stress that Promes’ conviction is not yet irrevocable: the footballer has appealed. “That means that the judgment of the Amsterdam court is not final. The Amsterdam Court of Appeal will completely reassess the alleged role of Promes in this case.”

The lawyers would not make any further statements about the case as long as the judge in the United Arab Emirates is still assessing the extradition request.