FAIR TRIALS INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHES PLAN FOR EXTRADITION REFORM

February 21 2012

On the day that FTI client, Michael Turner (29 years old from Dorset) gives evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on the trauma of his extradition to Hungary, human rights charity Fair Trials International publishes a six-point plan for reforming the UK’s extradition arrangements. Michael was extradited to Hungary in November 2009, two years before any decision to charge him, and spent four months in a Budapest prison, during which time he was only interviewed by police once. He was released in March 2010, with no official reason given.

Fair Trials International’s Chief Executive, Jago Russell, said:

“Michael Turner should never have been shipped off to Hungary under our extradition laws two years before they had even decided to prosecute him. His case is indicative of the pressing need for extradition reform and the Government must now act and bring forward new laws to sort out the problems once and for all.”

We are calling for six simple reforms (not requiring any renegotiation of treaties) which would prevent many of the injustices we have seen under our existing laws. These include giving UK judges a power to halt extradition until a case is trial-ready and a back-stop power for courts to refuse extradition where the requesting country is clearly not the appropriate place for a trial to take place.

For more information 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. The Home Affairs Committee, chaired by the Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, is conducting an inquiry into extradition. Michael Turner is giving evidence to the Committee on February 21 at 12.30pm in the Grimond Room, Portcullis House.

3. Michael Turner A British national from Dorset, who was extradited to Hungary and detained in horrendous conditions for four months, following the failure of a business venture there. Extradition occurred even though no decision had been made to prosecute. His trial is scheduled for February 29.

4. The European Arrest Warrant is a fast-track system for surrendering people from one European country to another to face trial or serve a prison sentence. It has removed many of the traditional safeguards from the extradition process. If a court in one country demands a person’s arrest and extradition, courts and police in other countries must act on it. In 2008 over 3,500 EAWs were received by the UK: in 2009 the number jumped to 4,100. In 2010, over 1,000 people were extradited from the UK to another EU country, compared to 699 in the previous year.

5. Fair Trials International’s six point plan for extradition reform
We have submitted a six point plan to the Home Affairs Committee to reform the Extradition Act 2003. Many of these changes have already been recommended by other in-depth extradition reviews that took place in 2011. All can be achieved simply and quickly. The impact for people facing extradition requests would be substantial if the reforms were enacted. The six reforms are:

• No extradition until a case is trial ready, to prevent the many cases of premature extradition currently blighting the system;

• Allow courts to seek further information from the requesting state before extradition (for example, when it needs to satisfy itself on identity or fundamental rights questions);

• Give courts a back-stop power to refuse extradition where it would not be in the interests of justice because the requesting state is clearly not the appropriate forum;

• Abolish means-testing for legal aid in all extradition cases, to prevent the delays, wasted costs and injustices caused by the current system;

• Extend the fixed one-week deadline to appeal against extradition under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), so that injustices caused by inflexibility in the current system are avoided; and

• Allow British nationals or residents who are wanted under conviction EAWs to serve their sentence in the UK, to avoid the pointless expense of extradition followed by transfer back to a UK prison.

To download our six point plan, click here. For more information about our campaign to reform the EU’s extradition system, click here.