Personal plea for reform from victims of EU extradition regime

On Monday 5th December, victims of the EU’s fast-track extradition regime (the European Arrest Warrant) delivered a joint letter to all MPs, calling on them to vote for reform of “the UK’s extradition arrangements as a matter of urgency” (text of letter below). Last week, MPs were informed that they would be allowed a debate and vote for reform in the House of Commons.

Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials International, said:

“We have seen too many cases of injustice under Europe’s fast-track extradition regime: people torn from their homes and families and shipped off to foreign prisons after grossly unfair trials or to wait years for their day in court. Finally, today, our politicians have the chance to demand reform and stand up for the rights of the people they represent.”

Fair Trials International has long campaigned for reform of the European Arrest Warrant (Europe’s fast-track extradition system) and we have documented many cases of injustice caused by a lack of basic safeguards in Europe’s fast-track extradition system.

For more information please contact Fair Trials International on +44 (0)20 7822 2370 or +44 (0)7950 849 851

TEXT OF LETTER (Delivered to MPs Monday 5th December 2011)

“Dear MPs,

We are writing to urge you to take part in Monday’s Commons debate on extradition reform.

We have all had our lives turned upside down by the flawed and unjust European Arrest Warrant system. Many of us still suffer from the mental (and financial) effects of our ordeals. Our families and friends have also suffered great anguish, seeing us arrested at airports after family holidays, watching us cope with months or years in foreign prisons, often in horrendous conditions, and dealing with the bewildering experience of trying to understand very different legal systems.

Reform of our extradition laws is long overdue. Urgent action must be taken by the Government to make UK law operate more fairly and to deal with the defects in the EU law that introduced this fast- track system.

We are pleased that you will finally have a real chance to debate this issue. With over 1000 people being extradited each year from the UK to other European countries, you are likely to have constituents that have been affected. As parliamentarians you now have a chance to stand up for the rights of the people you represent. We hope you will use your voice and your votes to demand urgent action by the Government.

We have been let down by the European Arrest Warrant and its misguided assumption that other countries’ legal systems and standards are fair and safeguard basic human rights. We can tell you from bitter, personal experience that this is simply not true. Please use the opportunity today to take action before more people suffer as we have.

Yours faithfully,

Deborah Dark: 
(Grandmother wanted in France for a 20 year old conviction never notified to her. Trapped in the UK at risk of repeated arrest because no law requires France to remove the warrant)

Garry Mann:
(Former fireman from Kent and father of six, extradited to Portugal to serve 2 year sentence imposed after a grossly unfair trial)

Michael Turner: (Businessman from Dorset extradited to a former KGB prison in Hungary and held for four months without being charged with any offence)

Edmond Arapi: (Wanted by Italy for a crime committed when he could prove he was at work in England. Narrowly avoided being torn from wife and three children when Italy agreed at the 11th hour to remove the warrant)

Andrew Symeou: (Was a 20 year old student when extradited to Greece, only to spend 11 months in terrible prison conditions and a further year on local bail, before being acquitted)

Tracey Molamphy: (British secretary arrested in Germany and threatened with extradition to Portugal for a 12 year old conviction she was not aware of)

Fair Trials International: (On behalf of our other clients who have suffered similar ordeals but are unable to sign this letter from a foreign prison or who fear further damage to their lives)”

Notes to Editors

1. Fair Trials International is a human rights charity which 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. We have expressed serious concerns about the operation of Europe’s fast-track extradition system (the European Arrest Warrant), which, although intended to deliver justice, is causing serious cases of injustice. Several of our clients have experienced injustice and anguish as a result of flaws in the Arrest Warrant, including those who have signed the letter

2. The motion on which the Backbench Business Committee has today scheduled a vote is:
“That this House calls upon the Government to reform the UK’s extradition arrangements as a matter of urgency to strengthen the protection of British citizens: by introducing a Bill in Parliament to enact the safeguards recommended by the Joint Committee on Human Rights in its Fifteenth Report of 2010-12, and by pursuing such amendments to the UK-US Extradition Treaty 2003 and the EU Council Framework Decision 2002 on the European Arrest Warrant as are necessary in order to give effect to such recommendations.”

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. We have also consistently argued that Europe must continue with its ongoing program of legislation to require all EU countries to respect basic fair trial rights and ensure people are not kept in pre-trial detention for excessive periods.

4. This Commons debate follows an earlier, well-attended debate at Westminster Hall on Thursday 24 November 2011. Many constituency MPs of Fair Trials International clients spoke in depth about the experiences of their constituents who had been the subject of extradition requests by other EU countries. However, as the debate took place in Westminster Hall, votes were not allowed. Catch up on what was said in the debate 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 extradition and detention regimes. The real-life experiences of the people we assist enable us to demonstrate the need for these safeguards.