UKIP leads way on EAW protest

Wednesday, 25th August 2010

UKIP has consistently opposed the introduction of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) and The Extradition Act 2003.

It has done so because, unlike the Old Parties, it always understood that the criminal justice systems of many of the member states of the European Union did not measure up to the high standards set by the Common Law and other legal systems in place in the UK and that many people being haled off to face criminal proceedings in far-flung corners of the EU would so on the flimsiest of pretexts and without any Judge in the UK being able to scrutinise the evidence on which the draconian EAWs are based.

The year 2010 has seen UKIP campaigning tirelessly on the issue both at a general level and in particular cases. Thus William Dartmouth MEP engaged himself closely in the case of two men whisked off to Hungary to face investigation – not prosecution as the Extradition Act 2003 requires – and possible incarceration for years before charges were brought.

Thanks to William’s unstinting efforts the two men are now back in the UK. Then there was Gerard Batten MEP intervening in the case of Andrew Symeou who has been extradited to Greece on minimal evidence to face trial.

UKIP was also active in the case of Edmond Arapi who was tried and sentenced in absentia by an Italian Court to seventeen years imprisonment without right of appeal. Until this flawed measure is removed from the Statute Book new cases of gross injustice will fill newspapers and the airwaves every day.

Now the mainstream media are beginning belatedly to take notice of our campaign. The Sunday Telegraph has carried a series of articles and a leader on the subject: Surge in Britons exported for trial, Arrested and held in Britain on demand of EU prosecutors, Extradition nightmare: 'When we first saw our son in jail it broke our hearts', More than 1,000 Britons were 'exported' for trial last year - and they couldn't even ask a British judge to test the case against them.

Andrew Gilligan’s Telegraph pieces reveal a shocking picture. Nearly three people a day are being spirited off to distant places to face lengthy investigations before possible trials according to standards that fall far below those which British people are used to and expect. Their use has risen dramatically in the last year: up by 51% in 2009-2010 as against 2008-2009. Gilligan cites cases which involve minor crimes where British Citizens have been extradited without consideration of the evidence to face the possibility of years on remand in foreign prisons.

Even David Blunkett, the Europhile Home Secretary who did Brussels’ bidding in introducing the Extradition Act in the first place, now has his misgivings: “I was right, as Home Secretary in the post-9/11 era, to agree to the European Arrest Warrant, but I was insufficiently sensitive to how it might be used.”

That, of course, is what comes of not listening to the sort of warnings UKIP were issuing at the time and ever since: that instead of this being used for genuinely serious crimes, it would result in British Citizens being extradited to face trial for minor matters at great expense to the British Taxpayer - resources which would be better used protecting our own Citizens against crime.

In its leader the Telegraph calls on the government to act but absolves the Coalition of any blame. This is, as you might expect, utterly misleading. The EU Directive that had Blunkett introducing the 2003 Act was steered through the European Parliament by Graham Watson MEP, a Liberal Democrat, with the unstinting support his fellow UK MEPs Lib Dems, Labour and, to their eternal disgrace, the Tories.

Only UKIP warned against it and voted consistently against it in the European Parliament. Now that its true nature is revealed we have the unedifying sight of former enthusiasts wriggling with shame and embarrassment at what they have wrought: Baroness Ludford and her crocodile tears, Graham Watson bleating on about terrorism (and just how many of last year’s 1032 were terrorists, Mr. Watson?), David Davis cravenly ducking debate with Nigel Farage on Question Time… so the list goes on.

Now that it has become evident that this Act is producing the most monstrous injustices, its former enthusiasts are suddenly discovering they were really against it all along and are leaping as hard as they can onto the UKIP bandwagon.

Since the Treaty of Lisbon came into force UKIP has had ample opportunity to observe “We told you so” as each new power-grab comes along. But this case amply demonstrates how we have been consistently ahead of the game from the word go, so often that it would fill a whole statute book to list the occasions we have got it right and the Old Parties have got it wrong. On this occasion we can thus say it again, loud and clear: “We told you so!”

Far from the Coalition backtracking on this, the inept and ignorant Theresa May is keen for the UK to opt in to the European Investigation Order which will have foreign judges sending British police on fishing expeditions for evidence in all manner of footling causes at a time when cuts mean less police for the investigation of domestic crimes. Faced with a disaster like the Extradition Act, the Europhile Tories are keen to repeat the exercise.

And when the EU passes it all in the European Parliament, May will have no choice but to ram the legislation through Westminster, revealing the impotence of the UK Parliament and government in all its tawdriness.
UKIP, as usual, will be fighting the UK’s corner in all this whilst the Watsons and Ludfords and their Europhile Tory chums are surrendering in droves to “More Europe”.

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