Extradition review off-target

Wednesday, 8th September 2010

The Government's announcement of a review of Britain's extradition agreements is ignoring the main problem in the is area – the European Arrest Warrant.

At Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons today, Nick Clegg confirmed a review into into the agreements concentrating on the imbalance between the UK and US in their extradition procedures following the 2003 US-UK extradition treaty whilst downgrading the problems associated with the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

According to studies the US agreement has been used in a handful of cases including the infamous MacKinnon case.

UKIP London MEP Gerard Batten said: "The Government's focus just highlights their impotence. Concentrating on the US extradition treaty, whilst hardly addressing the catastrophe of the European Arrest Warrant."

The EAW has been used in thousands of cases. According to a Freedom of Information release, 1,032 people were extradited on the orders of European prosecutors in the 12 months to April. The Home Office expects a further rise, to 1,700, next year.

Mr Batten said: "It is easy for civil liberties campaigners to criticise the US, but the far greater problem lies closer to home with
the EAW. British courts have been stripped of their right to protect British citizens from unjust arrest and imprisonment when extradited by foreign courts.

"Extradition is now a mere bureaucratic formality and has been reduced to the export of the carcasses of accused persons. The courts have no power to prevent extradition even when it is glaringly obvious that a gross injustice is being done.

"An honest review can only result in the repeal of the EAW and the provision of a new bi-lateral international extradition treaty that allows British courts to base their decision on the prima facie evidence, and with power to refuse extradition."