Garry Mann - Portugal
“I have been let down by the politicians that agreed to the UK’s rigid extradition laws and the European arrest warrant and the judges who no longer seem willing to stand up for justice . This was supposed to have been for terrorists implemented after the 9/11 attack but, for some reason, I have been caught in its net. I am not the first victim of this system and, until it’s reformed, I won’t be the last.”
Garry Mann, shortly before his extradition
SUMMARY
Garry Mann was extradited to Portugal on 12 May 2010, despite British courts stating that his extradition was an “embarrassment” to the UK and Portugal, acknowledging the “serious injustice” he had suffered and one court concluding that his trial in Portugal breached his basic fair trial rights.
BACKGROUND
In 2004, Garry Mann, a fireman from Kent, went to Portugal to watch the European football championship. According to Garry, he was with friends in a bar in Albufeira when a riot amongst English football supporters broke out in a nearby street.
Garry was arrested on 15 June 2004, along with several other football supporters, and charged with causing the riot. He was tried the following day, together with 11 other defendants, under a temporary fast-track procedure set up ahead of the championship to combat football hooliganism. He was arrested, tried and convicted in less than 48 hours. He was unable to instruct a lawyer and unable to understand or participate in the proceedings due to poor quality of translation provided. The Portuguese authorities state that he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Garry reports being told the sentence would not be carried out on the condition that he accepted voluntary deportation back to the UK and not return to Portugal for at least 1 year. On 18 June 2004 he voluntarily agreed to being deported. This also seems to be the understanding of the Home Office, whose spokeswoman told Sky News back in 2004, “The intent of the judge [of the Portuguese court] appears to have been to get Mr Mann out of the country rather than immediate imprisonment, stating that he would serve two years in custody if he returned to Portugal.” Notes from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from the time of Garry´s arrest similarly suggest that consular officials also shared this understanding.
Once he was back in the UK, the Metropolitan police applied for a worldwide football banning order against Garry, but in 2005 the Court held he had been denied a fair trial in Portugal and refused the order.
In 2009 Garry was astonished to have been arrested on a European Arrest Warrant, alleging he was wanted in Portugal to serve a 2 year prison sentence. At his extradition hearings his lawyer argued that he should not be extradited to serve a prison sentence following a trial which one British court has already decided breached his basic fair trial rights: however the English court found it impossible to resist the Portuguese request and he was extradited in May 2010.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
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15 to 17 Jun 04
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Garry is arrested in Portugal on suspicion of involvement in a riot during the Euro 2004 football championships.
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18 Jun 04
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Garry returns to the UK. Garry’s case receives much press attention when Home Secretary of the UK, David Blunkett, states he has “not given up on the idea we are going to nail this individual.”
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2004:
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Chief of Metropolitan police took out an application for a worldwide football banning order to prevent Mann from travelling abroad to attend football matches.
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2005:
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Justice Stephen Day at [ Magistrates Court] denies the application for a football banning order, finding the trial in Portugal to be “so unfair as to be incompatible with the respondents’ right to a fair trial under Article 6.” He concludes “it would be unfair to rely upon the Portuguese conviction.” Garry resumes his life in Kent and, for four years, had no further run-ins with the law.
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Month, 08:
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Portugese authorities issue European Arrest Warrant for the arrest and extradition of Garry Mann. Garry in unaware of this.
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Mar 09:
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British police arrest Garry at him at his home.
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Aug 09:
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Despite the earlier ruling by Justice Stephen Day branding Garry’s trial in Portugal “unfair”, the Westminster Magistrates court orders Garry’s extradition to Portugal.
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19 Jan 10:
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Two legal challenges to Garry’s extradition are refused by the High Court on 19 January
However, Lord Justice Moses stated in its judgment that he could not “leave this application without remarking upon the inability of this court to rectify what appears to be a serious injustice to Mr Mann”. He added he hoped the “ECHR or the diplomatic authorities in the UK or in Portugal can strive to achieve some measure of justice for Mr Mann, a justice of which he has been so signally deprived by those on whom he had previously relied”.
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21 Jan 10:
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An emergency application was made to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on 21 January 2010, asking for an injunction to prevent the extradition until the ECHR considers his substantial application. The ECHR decided that it would consider the application after all UK legal challenges had been exhausted.
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Feb 10:
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Attempts to reach a diplomatic solution to Garry’s predicament fail as the Portguese Government do not respond to two letters requesting them to assist in preventing Garry’s extradition.
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26 Mar 10:
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Garry Mann’s legal challenge against extradition to Portugal in the UK courts is rejected by the High Court. Despite this Lord Justice Moses, described the case as an "embarrassment" and said: "If there was a case for mediation or grown up people getting their heads together then this is it." The judge said that new evidence from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office "lends force to his belief that a serious injustice" had been committed against Mr Mann
The UK Court orders that Garry not be extradited until 1600 BST on 9th April to give the European Court the chance to consider the application.
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Apr 10:
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Emergency application were made to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), asking for an injunction to prevent the extradition until the ECHR considers the challenge to Garry’s treatment in the Portuguese and UK courts. Sadly, these were rejected on 27th April.
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7 May 10:
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A final judicial review application is heard by the UK courts. FTI intervened (represented by Matthew Ryder QC and Mark Summers of Matrix Chambers), arguing that Garry’s extradition would not only breach his fair trial rights but would also constitute arbitrary detention given the continuing uncertainty over whether the Portuguese courts ever intended Garry to serve a prison sentence in Portugal. The application was, sadly, rejected.
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12 May 10
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Garry is extradited to Portugal to start serving his two year prison sentence.
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INVOLVEMENT OF FTI
Fair Trials International has been involved in Garry Mann’s case since 2004, when Garry returned to the UK. In response to the sensational headlines and political criticism of Garry Mann, FTI highlighted its concerns about how he had been treated in Portugal. We assisted Garry’s legal team in challenging the application for a football banning order.
Like Garry, we also thought that his ordeal was over when the application for a banning order was rejected by the British Courts. We quickly became involved in his case in 2009 after his arrest on a European Arrest Warrant from Portugal. We sought a diplomatic solution to the case, making repeated representations to Portuguese and British authorities, to no avail. We also sought the intervention of Eurojust, which also refused to assist. In addition to assisting with his applications to the European Court of Human Rights, we also worked with Garry’s legal team (Karen Todner, Ed Fitzgerald QC and Ben Cooper) to challenge his extradition in the UK courts, and intervened in the final legal challenge in the UK courts.
We are now working with Portuguese lawyers to get Garry home as soon as possible. We hope that he will be granted either early release by Portugal or that he will be transferred back to serve his sentence closer to his family in a UK jail. Alongside this, we are continuing to support the legal challenge to Garry’s treatment by the British and Portuguese courts in the European Court of Human Rights.
CONCERNS OF FAIR TRIAL INTERNATIONAL
(1) Unfair Trial
· Inadequate legal representation (1 lawyer for 12 defendants);
· No opportunity to prepare a defence (the trial having taken place within 24 hours of Mann’s arrest) or to instruct a lawyer;
· Poor quality interpretation (there was only one interpreter speaking English), meaning that the defendants could not follow or participate in the trial.
(2) European Arrest Warrant
· Fair Trials International has serious concerns about the European Arrest Warrant. In practice, the system has been interpreted as leaving no scope for the British courts to prevent an extradition even where, as in this case, it would lead to clear injustice.
What you can do to help
HOW YOU CAN HELP
(1) Write to the following to ask them to bring Garry home as soon as possible:
· Home Secretary, Rt Hon Teresa May MP (2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF)
· Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, Rt Hon William Hague MP (King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH)
· Justice Minister, Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke (102 Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ)