FTI writes to Home Secretary calling for Extradition Reform Bill in next Queen’s Speech

Fair Trials International, the human rights charity, has today written to Home Secretary Theresa May calling on the Government to bring forward an Extradition Reform Bill in the Queen’s Speech later this year. The call follows a debate in Parliament in December in which overwhelming cross-party support was shown for reform of the UK’s extradition laws. Fair Trials International’s Chief Executive, Jago Russell, said:

“It is clear that there is massive public concern over the UK’s existing extradition arrangements. After countless individual cases of injustice, reviews, and debates in Parliament, all calling for reform, the time for talk has passed. The Government must now act and bring forward new laws in the Queen’s Speech to sort out the problems once and for all.”

For more information, and a copy of the letter, please contact Fair Trials International on +44 (0)20 7822 2370 or +44 (0)7950 849 851
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Notes to Editors
1. Fair Trials International is a human rights charity that provides assistance to people arrested in a country other than their own and campaigns for reform to fight the underlying causes of injustice in cross-border cases.

2. FTI’s focus in the extradition context is Europe’s fast track extradition system, the European Arrest Warrant. This accounts for the vast majority of extraditions by the UK each year. Several of our clients have experienced injustice and anguish as a result of flaws in the European Arrest Warrant, including:

Deborah Dark: A grandmother who was wanted in France for a twenty year old conviction she knew nothing about. Despite courts in both the UK and Spain ruling it would be unjust to extradite her, Deborah was trapped in the UK and unable to visit her father in Spain.

Andrew Symeou: Andrew was extradited to Greece in July 2009 to face charges in connection with the death of a young man on a Greek island. Andrew was extradited long before the Greek court was ready to try him, and endured almost a year in terrible prison conditions before being granted “local” bail in Greece. Andrew was finally cleared by a Greek court in June 2011, almost four years after the events in question.

Garry Mann: A former fireman from Kent and a father of six, Garry was extradited to Portugal in May 2010 to serve a sentence imposed after a grossly unfair trial, in which he had no proper access to legal advice and no chance to mount a defence. He was only released from prison in August 2011.

Edmond Arapi: A father of three, Edmond narrowly avoided extradition after FTI campaigned on his behalf. The British courts had ordered that he be sent to serve a 16 year prison sentence in Italy, despite clear proof he was not even in Italy on the day of the offence but was at work in a cafe in the UK.

3. The European Arrest Warrant applies to all extradition requests within the European Union. It was created in the wake of 9/11 and was intended to speed up the extradition system by removing all political discretion in extradition decisions and most of the traditional legal barriers to extradition. FTI has called for additional safeguards against abuse and overuse of this “tick-box” system. We have also consistently argued that Europe must continue with its ongoing programme of legislation to require all EU countries to respect basic fair trial rights and ensure people are not kept in pre-trial detention unnecessarily or for excessive periods.

4. The House of Commons debate, led by Dominic Raab MP, took place on December 5, 2011. It called on the Government to reform the UK’s extradition arrangements to strengthen the protection of British citizens by introducing a Bill to enact the safeguards recommended by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. To read more about the debate, click here.

5. In June 2011 the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights published a report on the human rights impact of extradition following an enquiry in which Fair Trials International and our clients Deborah Dark, Michael Turner, Edmond Arapi and Frank Symeou (father of Andrew) took part. The Joint Committee criticised the lack of safeguards in the UK’s extradition arrangements, both in relation to European Union countries and the United States, and called for amendments to UK extradition law and a renegotiation of the European legislation that introduced the European Arrest Warrant.

6. Sir Scott Baker’s Extradition Review, announced by the Home Office in September 2010, was established to ensure that the UK’s extradition arrangements work both efficiently and in the interests of justice. The operation of the European Arrest Warrant was a key focus of the Review, which published its report in October 2011. The Panel was chaired by former Lord Justice, Sir Scott Baker, and the other members of the panel were Anand Doobay and David Perry QC. Fair Trials International’s briefing on the Extradition Review Panel’s findings regarding the European Arrest Warrant can be found here. Fair Trials International’s own evidence to the Review Panel containing our suggestions for reform can be found here.

7. Justice in Europe campaign Fair Trials International has long campaigned for stronger safeguards to be introduced at EU level to strengthen basic defence rights and improve EU countries’ extradition and detention regimes. The real-life experiences of the people we assist enable us to demonstrate the need for these safeguards.