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| EXTRADITION  'Free Gary' press conference
in January 2009 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. Today, the High Court ruled that the extradition of Andrew Symeou must go ahead. Andrew Symeou, a young British man accused of manslaughter, is facing extradition to Greece under a European Arrest Warrant without a British court ever considering the evidence in his case. 01.05.2009
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Contact us for free copies of our leaflet about extradition -what it is, our concerns and case studies. | |
Liberty’s Committee Stage Briefing on the Policing and Crime Bill (Part 6: Extradition) in the House of Lords, June 2009 (PDF) Liberty’s Second Reading Briefing on the Policing and Crime Bill (Part 6: Extradition) in the House of Lords, May 2009 (PDF) Liberty’s Second Reading Briefing on the Policing and Crime Bill in the House of Lords, May 2009 (PDF) Briefing for the Second Reading and Report Stages in the House of Lords, April 2003 (PDF)
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