Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

Mr Watkin has given £100,000 worth of shares in D1 Oils plc, a company he founded and of which he is now a Non-Executive Director, to the Civil Liberties Charitable Trust in order to fund Liberty's work. 
  
Concerning the donation Mr. Watkin said:  
 
“Liberty is a world-class organisation providing a much-needed voice for those whom the establishment chooses to overlook or ignore. I hope that other business people who are best placed to assist, will follow my lead by making similar donations.”  
 
Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said:  
 
“When human rights activists and business leaders joined forces to highlight the unfair Extradition Act, it made clear that human rights must belong to all of us or they will belong to no one. Mr. Watkin’s truly generous support will help Liberty to take this message forward.” 
  
Liberty, the CBI, the Institute of Directors and others campaigned in 2006 against the Extradition Treaty 2003 which allows Britons to be unfairly extradited to face criminal charges abroad. 
  
Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128 or Karl E. Watkin on 07808 690069  
 
NOTES TO EDITORS 
  
1. Mr Karl E. Watkin, an entrepreneur, has 28 years of international business experience, particularly in Asia, and received an MBE for services to UK exports in 1993. Karl led the management buyout, turnaround and flotation of Crabtree, a major international supplier to the can making industry. In 1999 he created and floated the UK’s first internet business-to-business exchange, J2C Plc. Karl is a Non-Executive Director of Dermasalve Sciences PLC, which he created in 2004 and floated in January 2006, and of China Goldmines PLC, which he formed in 2005 and floated in February 2006. Karl is the founder and former Chairman of D1 Oils plc (www.d1plc.com). He developed the alternative feedstock strategy for D1 and built the team behind it.  
 
2. In October 2006, Liberty, the CBI, the Institute of Directors and others unsuccessfully sought Parliamentary support for a law to provide greater protection for British citizens who may be extradited to face criminal charges abroad. 
  
3. Liberty intervened in the case Government of the United States of America v Bermingham, Mulgrew and Darby, to argue that removal to the United States would engage Article 8 of the Human Rights Act which protects the right to respect for a private and family life. Liberty argued that the interference with family life caused by removal to the United States must be disproportionate if shown to be unnecessary through the ability to dispose of the case to the United Kingdom. The three were sent to the USA in July 2006.
 
 
4. Home Office figures indicate that the US government has made 47 extradition requests since January 2004. England and Wales have made at least nine extradition requests of the US since 2004, of these three individuals have been surrendered and two cases have been closed without surrendering the individuals. Information about the status of the US requests has not been released.
 
 
5. The Extradition Act 2003 was ratified by the US Senate in September 2006. Liberty believes that this does not alter the treaty’s “unequal” status, as US citizens enjoy added protection from extradition because of their rights under the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.