Further evidence submitted to the Joint Committee on Human Rights

Fair Trials International has provided further evidence to Joint Committee on Human Rights, dealing with the question of how proactive judges should be when considering extradition requests from countries with poor human rights records.

Catherine Heard, Head of Policy at Fair Trials International, argues that more scrutiny is needed at the pre-extradition stage when judges are alerted to risks of extremely poor prison conditions or of unfair trial procedures in the requesting state.

Blind faith should not be placed on countries to comply with basic rights for suspects and detainees merely because they are EU Member States.