Ling Yong Nam, a Singaporean national under indictment in the United States, will be extradited to the United States after a ruling by a court in Batam, Indonesia. Lim is accused of having arranged the shipment of radio modules from the United States to Iran.

Interestingly, Lim could have avoided extradition if he just had stayed home. In 2011, Singapore had refused Lim’s extradition relying on the dual criminality provision in the extradition treaty between the United States and Singapore, which requires that the conduct serving as the basis for extradition be a criminal offense both in Singapore and the United States. Since the unlicensed shipment of radio modules to Iran was not illegal under the law of Singapore, the dual criminality test was not met, and the extradition request was denied.

Fast forward to October 2014. Lim hopped a ferry from Singapore to Batam to attend a trade show. He was nabbed as he stepped off the ferry and has been sitting in jail in Batam ever since.

The United States has no extradition treaty with Indonesia, so the judge issuing the extradition order engaged in some creative legal reasoning to reach his decision:

The judge said he had taken into consideration the two countries’ good relations and America’s help in returning two Indonesian criminals to Indonesia.

“As a result of this, we will grant the extradition request and detain Lim Yong Nam till this extradition process is carried out,” said Judge Cahyono on behalf of the three-judge panel.

He might as well have added that he once visited Disneyland and enjoyed it immensely.

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