Guardian Local: France drops arrest warrant for ‘wanted’ gran Deborah Dark
May 28 2010A grandmother’s “living hell” is finally over after she won a two-year battle to have a European arrest warrant against her lifted.
Deborah Dark, 46, of Latchmere Lane, Ham, lived in fear after discovering French authorities wanted her to be extradited to serve a six-year prison sentence she knew nothing about.
Speaking to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, she said: “It’s been horrendous. It totally destroyed my life. I’ve lost two stone in weight – it just fell off me – It’s just been a living hell.
“But now I’m totally free and I can fly wherever I want. I’m absolutely ecstatic – it feels like a big weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
Ms Dark was originally arrested in France on drug-related charges in 1989.
She claims she was “set-up” by an ex-boyfriend who used her as a decoy and put drugs in her car. She was arrested and held in a French prison for eight-and-a-half months before being tried.
A French court found her not guilty of all charges and she was released, but the court of appeal overturned the original verdict without her knowledge in 1990, sentencing her to six years in prison.
In 2005, the French authorities issued a European arrest warrant for Ms Dark to be extradited to serve her sentence.
The grandmother-of-two only found out she was a wanted woman in 2008 when she was arrested in Spain.
However, there had been a warning a year earlier when she was arrested at gunpoint, strip-searched and handcuffed by customs police when she arrived in Turkey – without explanation.
In 2008, after being stopped at a Spanish airport, she was kept in a high security Madrid prison for a month, and treated “like a terrorist”, before Spanish authorities refused France’s request for her to be extradited.
She said: “I went to Spain with my daughter and twin grandsons to see my father and was arrested at the airport in Spain where they told me to sit down as they had some bad news for me – I was to be extradited.”
“I had a feeling of absolute horror and shock. Tthey had to sedate me as I just collapsed on the floor.
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“The year before I was arrested in Turkey, but when I went home and went to the police station they had checked for warrants and there had been nothing.”
After her horrific ordeal Ms Dark returned to England and has been fighting a lengthy battle against the extradition order, and to clear her name ever since.
She said: “I’m glad just to be cleared. My family are all so relieved.
“I’m probably going to go see my father who’s still in Spain in Alicante. I won’t be going with my daughter and grandsons though as I’d just be terrified – I’ve been cleared but just something in the back of my mind.”
Charity organisation Fair Trials International has been helping Ms Dark fight the order and its chief executive, Jago Russell, said he was delighted at Wednesday’s news that the warrant had been dropped.
He said: “We’re delighted Deborah’s extradition order has been quashed. She’s been through a horrendous ordeal and it finally looks like it is over.
“Her case is a really shocking one as two courts in two different countries were saying it was unjust but we couldn’t get it removed.
“It's not been easy. There is no real system for getting these things removed – once they are on the system it is very difficult to get them off. It was a combination of media and political pressure, and open communication when giving reasons to the French for why they should remove the order.”