UK: Reform of extradition procedures
Topic
Country/Region
01 March 2001
The Home Secretary Jack Straw has published a consultation document on extradition which proposes to:
create a simplified, unified scheme of extradition, which aims to remove where possible the complexity and potential delay of the present arrangements, and to produce a framework that will form a much more efficient support to international judicial cooperation whilst ensuring justice for defendants and victims.
The report contains an overview of the new scheme which includes a fast-track procedure (tier 1) “for EU and Schengen partners” that aims to “develop proposals that reflect the Tampere conclusions.” Tier 2 would include “any EU member state not yet in tier one by virtue of not having ratified the required EU instrument” (assuming the reciprocity of that scheme) while tier 3 “would include all the remaining countries participating in the Commonwealth Scheme for the Rendition of Fugitive Offenders, as well as our bilateral treaty partners until a treaty is renegotiated.” Tier 4 deals with extradition requests from a foreign state with which the UK does not have a general extradition arrangement.
The present extradition arrangements, according to “an analysis of cases over the last ten years confirms that it is in general taking longer to reach decisions in all extradition cases, and that some of them are failing on technical grounds.” However, while extradition procedures are in desperate need of reform, simplifying and speeding them up in the manner proposed may result in less “technical failures” but may lead to more miscarriages of justice. It is imperative that any reform of the extradition law takes on board the lessons learnt from the case of Roisin McAliskey who was shunted between Holloway prison and Belmarsh high-security prison for 15 months after the British government pressured the German authorities to seek her extradition for her alleged involvement in an IRA mortar attack on a British army base in Osnabrook in June 1996.
During this time the then pregnant McAliskey was interrogated, held in isolation in a filthy cell that had been used for a no-wash protest and strip-searched on more than 90 occasions. The case against her, which was described as “puny” by her solicitor Gareth Peirce, was eventually dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service acknowledged that there was no evidence against her. However, the object of the exercise was achieved when a physically and mentally shattered McAliskey left prison suffering from brittle bone disease. She was admitted to London's Maudsley hospital undergoing psychiatric treatment for post-natal depression and severe post-traumatic stress ensuring that her political activities were curtailed (see Statewatch vol 10 no 5).
If you wish to respond to the Home Office document you can write to: Extradition Policy Section, Judicial Cooperation Unit, Room 451, Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AT, Telephone 0207 273 3468. It is also available on the Home Office website at: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/oicd/jcu.htm “The law of extradition: a review” Home Office, March 2001 pp87.