UK-SPAIN: Fast-track extradition agreement
Topic
Country/Region
01 March 2001
On 21 March Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, and Angel Acebes Paniagua, the Spanish Justice Minister, signed a bilateral extradition agreement in London. It commits them “to negotiate a treaty for expedited judicial surrender, based on the principle of mutual recognition” to speed up the “return of fugitives accused or convicted of serious crimes”. The treaty, to “be negotiated and signed over the next months”, will require primary legislation to come into force, and will “largely do away with” current extradition procedures.
The guiding principles for the treaty outlined in the agreement are 1) the surrender of people accused or convicted of all serious crimes (including terrorism and organised and international crime), 2) the mutual recognition and execution of judicial decisions (including arrest warrants, with the requesting States' specification of offences applying) and 3) the replacement of extradition procedure with a single court hearing “to establish liability to surrender”.
The hearing is to be based “on examination of documentation from the requesting State”, including: a) the arrest warrant or certificate of conviction/detention, b) relevant requesting State legislation, and c) documentation establishing the fugitive's identity. It will only be possible to refuse requests or file appeals on these grounds. Nationality will not be a ground for refusal, emergency arrest procedures will be introduced, and “temporary surrender” will be provided for if the fugitive is serving a sentence in the requested State or is undergoing proceedings in both countries.
Jack Straw commented that “close police and judicial cooperation across national boundaries” is “at the heart of the successful fight against international crime”. A week earlier the Home Office published a consultation document, “The Law on Extradition: A Review” which envisaged a new extradition scheme based on a tiers system: tier one represents “a fast-track extradition regime” comprising “EU and Schengen Convention partners” (see next story). The future UK-Spain treaty is expected to “mirror closely” its proposal for a “backing of warrants scheme”. The study recommends that in the hearing, “for the process to be as quick and as straight-forward and simple as possible... any duplication of decision-making should be eliminated and there should be no consideration of matters... which are properly for the court of trial in the requesting state”. The distinction between pre- and post-conviction cases is deemed “unhelpful operationally” and “unnecessarily complex”.
Warrants transmitted to the court by the Home Office would authorise provisional arrests, although the report suggests that new legislation should allow the arrest of individuals listed on the Schengen Information System (SIS) “without the need for a provisional arrest warrant”. Many restrictions to extradition, such as conditions in the requesting state, the dual criminality rule (that the offence be recognised as such in both states), the risk of the fugitive facing the death penalty and the political offence exception, should be eliminated because EU/Schengen membership “is in itself, a powerful protection for an individual”. The retention of “a minimum sentencing threshold of 12 months in the requesting state” and the double jeopardy rule as exceptions was recommended. The report also questioned whether the exceptions for military offences (outside the scope of the criminal law), offences “where the requesting state has taken on extra-territorial jurisdiction” when these are not considered offences in the requested state and in absentia judgements should apply. It argues that in absentia judgements may be interpreted as a defendant waiving his/her right to a fair trial, except for cases where they knew nothing of the court case.
Straw and Acebes anticipate that the treaty may act as a forerunner for an EU-wide “surrender scheme”. Spain has taken the lead in efforts to push fast-track extr