DAVID BLUNKETT: EUROPEAN WARRANT IS FAIR, BUT IT IS OPEN TO ABUSE

Garry Mann

THE INDEPENDENT - DAVID BLUNKETT

Nothing gets up the nose of those outside this country more regularly than our assertion that the English judicial system is the best, fairest and most reliable in the world.

We’re rightly proud of the history of our laws and freedoms built up over centuries and the rights asserted from the late 17th century onwards. But it’s almost as if we’re stuck in a time warp. That is why there has been more debate about the development of the European Arrest Warrant here than in other countries on the Continent.

Whilst I believe I was right as Home Secretary in the post-11 September era to agree to the EAW, I was insufficiently sensitive to how this might be used not only for misdemeanours carrying greater sentences elsewhere than they would here – but also to the vagaries of time.

The decision of Gary Mann to carry his case to Strasbourg has been valuable. Looking back, I was unfair to Mr Mann – not in terms of the law that was agreed, but in terms of my own insensitivity to the likely overuse of powers which were designed, in particular, to tackle organised crime and terrorism.

David Blunkett is the MP for Sheffield Brightside and a former Home Secretary