HomeAboutJoinTake ActionNews & Events IssuesPublicationsContact
  • EXTRADITION

  • Liberty supporters protest unfair extradition

  • Extradition Watch Logo

    Extradition is defined as the delivering up of accused persons by one government to another.

    British residents can be removed under a “fast-track” extradition system to EU and certain other countries based on trust that the country seeking extradition has a fair legal system. This means that a British court never gets to consider whether there is evidence to justify the charge.

    The Extradition Act 2003 has eroded traditional protections in British law against summary and unfair extradition. Extradition law should have safeguards that ensure extradition always serves the interests of justice, that the complaint against the accused is genuine and backed up by evidence.

    Liberty believes:

    • - A person should not be extradited to stand trial in a foreign country without evidence being presented in a British court to prove there is a basic (prima facie) case against them
    • - If the crime is alleged to have occurred in whole or in part in the UK, then the person should not be extradited if a court here decides it is not in the interest of justice to extradite
    • - A person in the UK should not be extradited for something that is not a crime in the UK. British justice should not be circumvented.

      Fast-track extradition is justice denied.

      Case studies: read about individual cases in the extradition system.
    • Home Secretary fails vulnerable hacker

    • 27/11/09 In response to the Home Secretary’s decision not to intervene to prevent the extradition of Gary McKinnon, Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti said: "A government can't tie its own hands and then protest that its hands are tied. The shoddy treatment of this vulnerable man should demonstrate that our rotten extradition laws need urgent reform."
    • 27.11.2009
    • House of Lords battle to stop future Gary McKinnons

    • Today the House of Lords will have the opportunity to prevent situations like Gary McKinnon's reoccurring. An amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill would allow British judges to bar extradition if a significant part of the crime happened in the UK.
    • 04.11.2009
    • Liberty condemns High Court extradition decision

    • Human rights group Liberty today condemned the High Court decision that Gary McKinnon’s extradition must go ahead. Gary McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has been charged with hacking into the US Pentagon and NASA systems between 1999 and 2002, an offence which was committed from his computer at home in London.
    • 01.08.2009
    • Liberty condemns extradition of Andrew Symeou

    • Today 20 year old student Andrew Symeou will be extradited to Greece without even basic evidence being shown to a UK judge. The evidence against Andrew is widely held to be seriously flawed yet he will be extradited with no opportunity for a British court to consider whether there is any case to answer.
    • 23.07.2009
    • Liberty welcomes 'stay of extradition'

    • Permission was today granted for a student to take his fight against extradition to the House of Lords. Andrew Symeou, 26, is due to be extradited to Greece on manslaughter charges.
    • 02.06.2009