UK-USA sign crime treaty
01 January 1994
On 6 January Home Secretary Michael Howard and US Attorney General Janet Reno signed the UK/USA Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Washington. The Treaty extends to all serious crime the current practice of cooperation on drug-related offences. "Mutual legal assistance" covers the temporary transfer of prisoners to give evidence in court ("with their consent": which may be voluntary or under threat of charges in their own countries); carrying out search and seizure warrants at the request of the other country; and the taking of witness statements and preparation of evidence (for use in the other country). The Treaty is similar to the Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance between EU states, and it supersedes a 1988 Agreement between the UK and USA which did not have the binding force of a Treaty.
Home Office press release, 6.1.94.