Extraition
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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