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Extradition

On 31 March 2003, the Home Secretary had flown to Washington to sign a new Extradition Treaty on behalf of the UK. On the surface, it appeared to be a little bit of administration and not very newsworthy. The consequences would ruin many ordinary people’s lives.

The treaty removes the requirement on the US to provide evidence when requesting the extradition of people from the UK. In effect, all the US has to do is fill in a form and then, bang, you’d be flown off to America to stand trial, whether or not there is a shred of evidence against you. We signed away our right to be protected by British law, and hardly anyone noticed.

Under the terms of the Treaty, the US no longer needs to provide evidence to support an extradition request for a UK subject. However, if the UK wishes to extradite someone from the US, it must still satisfy an American court of exactly the same evidential burden as under the previous Treaty, that of ‘probable cause’. Since this provision is written into the US constitution, it is not something that the US could ever have given up. The Treaty gave away our rights of protection to a country who would never, could never, extend the same courtesy to us. In the face of US demands, our government simply rolled over and waved their legs in the air.

It’s harder to stay out of the way of the US Justice system than you might think. Because of the nature of electronic mail servers, sending an email to your friend suggesting a quick pint will probably be routed through at least one US server. By arranging an after work drink you have inadvertently entered US jurisdiction and made that meeting a potential conspiracy organised on US soil. An overzealous US prosecutor could take the email, along with a spurious allegation that you went to the pub to discuss terrorism, and get a grand jury indictment within hours. He could then request your extradition, and far from defending you against this idiotic and allegation, the British Government would arrest you and put you on the next plane to the USA. You could produce mountains of evidence that the nearest you came to discussing terrorism was hoping that Tottenham thrash the Arsenal next week, but a British Judge would be powerless to do anything about it.

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