FRANCE DROPS ARREST WARRANT FOR ‘WANTED’ GRAN DEBORAH DARK

LOCAL GUARDIAN - CHRISITINE FLEMING

A 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.

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.

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.”