Home Office officials have admitted that the number of people likely to be sent to face justice overseas is likely to treble once Britain signs up to a new EU agreement in April. The new rules will ensure that anyone who has a European Arrest Warrant issued against them will be automatically taken into custody. Dominic Grieve, the shadow justice secretary, warned that the adoption of the Schengen Information II system would lead to thousands of people being sent abroad, often for minor offences. Under the terms of the treaty, British courts must allow an extradition if a European Arrest Warrant has been issued, even if there are concerns about the standards of justice in the country that they are being sent to. Campaigners say that Britons are already being exported to countries such as Poland, Greece and Bulgaria where trials are often held without an English translation allowing them to follow proceedings. Last month, Andrew Symeou, a 20-year-old student, was extradited to Greece under the terms of an EAW to face charges of killing a British teenager in a fight in a bar, even though he claimed that his friends were beaten by police into giving statements implicating him. The extradition raised echoes of the case of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who is fighting extradition to the USA under laws that have been compared to the EAW. Home Office documents show that in 2007, the latest figures available, 504 people were dispatched to face justice through the use of EAWs. This figure is believed to include a man who stole a chicken in a drunken prank while on holiday in Eastern Europe, who was arrested despite returning the bird. Because Britain is not signed up to Schengen Information II, police here currently receive only half of the EAW requests submitted by EU nations, usually those of a more serious nature, relating to terrorism and serious organised crime. From April, however, once Britain officially joins the system, officials estimate that between 1,050 and 1,700 people a year will be extradited, many for lesser offences, such as minor drugs crimes, drunkenness, driving offences and petty theft. Mr Grieve said: “The European Arrest Warrant was introduced to fast-tack extradition of terrorist suspects, but has expanded well beyond that. “It allows British citizens to be whisked away to face trial for things that are not criminal in this country, on limited evidence, and in countries with lower standards of justice than in Britain. “If the Government is signing up to plans to increase the use of the warrant, it will only magnify the risk of British citizens falling victim of miscarriages of justice.” Tomorrow, Garry Mann, 54, a fireman from Kent, will attend Westminster magistrates court in a bid to fight an arrest warrant issued by the Portuguese courts over football hooliganism charges which he has always denied. He was deported from the country during Euro 2004 after being denied access to a lawyer or an interpreter, and now faces up to two years in jail. Jago Russell, of Fair Trials International said: “It is too costly for our rights and our finances to continue sending people to the other side of Europe for the most minor offences. “Unless Europe’s fast-track extradition system is improved, a threefold increase in the number of European Arrest Warrants could lead to three times as many cases of injustice.”Hundreds of Britons will be extradited for minor crimes under new rules
Hundreds of Britons will be extradited for minor misdemeanours ranging from driving offences and drunkenness to more bizarre crimes such as stealing chickens, under new rules which come into force next year.
Monday, 17 August 2009
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