Assange case highlights EU arrest warrant ‘abuses’

Garry Mann and family before his extradition to Portugal

EU OBSERVER - VALENTINA POP

The EU arrest warrant scheme under which WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to be extradited to Sweden is a "threat to human rights," as it is often abused with harsh consequences for the lives of the people concerned, Europe's chief human rights defender Thomas Hammarberg said Tuesday (15 March).

Catherine Heard from Fair Trials International, a British charity offering legal assistance to people arrested in other countries, said that her group has long time documented EAW abuses.

"We have seen the lives and futures of many ordinary people – teachers, firemen, chefs and students –blighted by the European Arrest Warrant, a system that infringes basic rights and fails to deliver a fair and efficient extradition system," she said in a press statement, welcoming Hammarberg's remarks.

In the case of Gary Mann, a fireman who was extradited to serve a two-year prison sentence for alleged hooliganism in Portugal, British courts stated that the warrant was an "embarrassment" to the UK and Portugal, said "serious injustice" had occurred, and that his trial in Portugal breached his basic fair trial rights.