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UK-USA: Treaty signed on mutual legal assistance

01 November 1996

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UK Home Secretary Michael Howard and US Attorney General, Janet Reno, formally ratified a treaty on "mutual legal assistance" at the American ambassador's home in London on 2 December. The treaty allowing cooperation between the two countries includes: 1) taking of witness statements; 2) providing documents; 3) "temporary transfer of prisoners (with their consent) to give evidence" (brackets in original); 4) "carrying requests to search and seize property" (which may have some relevance to S.89 of the Police Bill going through parliament, see story in this issue); "tracing, freezing and forfeiting the proceeds of drug trafficking and other serious crimes". The new treaty formalises the 1998 UK/USA Drugs Agreement and extends its range to "all serious crimes". Over the past three years the UK and the USA have "jointly handled about 400 requests for mutual legal assistance." Home Office press release, 2.12.96.

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