UK-US EXTRADITION: 10 EXAMPLES

August 9, 2012

Early this morning, Australian actor, Robert Hughes, was arrested in London, England, on charges relating to sexual assault. The alleged the crimes are thought to have happened between 1985 and 1990, some, while he was the star of the Australian sitcom Hey Dad. The Australian police are already calling for him to be extradited.

Extradition in the UK is governed by the Extradition Act 2003 which covers rendition protocols within the European Union (category 1) and guidelines concerning other nations the UK has individual treaties with (category 2), such as Russia, the US and Australia (see map). The UK-US treaty covered by the Act has been widely criticised for being too harsh and for favouring American over British interests.

Blue: Category 1Red: Category 2

There have been a number of high profile cases in Britain lately, like that of Abu Qatada, whose extradition had been delayed pending appeals and the receipt of guarantees that he would not be tortured if returned to Jordan, where he faces terror charges. The most controversial, however, have been those regarding the USA. Here are some notable examples:

• The NatWest Three: Giles Darby, David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew were indicted in Houston , Texas, for profiting from transactions to the detriment of their employer, the National Westminster Bank. They were extradited in 2006, but were not sentenced until 2008. They were given 37 months, but were allowed to serve some of that in Britain.

• Gary McKinnon is still fighting his extradition to the US were he could face up to 70 years in jail for hacking into US military and NASA computers between February 2001 and March 2002 and adding insult to injury by calling their security “crap”. He was indicted in November 2002 by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia. Mr McKinnon (46) has been diagnosed with Asperger’s and severe depression at the prospect of being rendered to the US. He claims that he was looking for (and found) evidence of a cover-up of UFO activity and reverse engendering from alien technologies.

• Babar Ahmed was first arrested and tortured in 2003 for involvement in websites supporting Chechen and Afghan insurgents. He has been in custody since August 2004 despite never having been charged in Britain and the US not producing evidence to support its terrorism claim. His appeals have failed and he is likely to be deported soon.

• Abu Hamza al-Masri has been wanted in the US since 2004 for allegedly being involved in the setting up of an Al-Qaeda terrorist training camp in Oregon USA. His last appeal failed in April 2012. Delays hinged on doubts that he would be treated humanely in America.

• Alex Stone is a blind computer science graduate from south London who was wrongly accused of physically abusing his girlfriend’s child in the US. Despite there not having been a shred of evidence against him, he was extradited in 2005. He was in jail for six and a half months before being released because of a complete lack of evidence against him and much evidence to the contrary.

• Ian Norris was extradited to the US in March 2010 for alleged price fixing, which was not even a crime in the UK at the time. He received an 18-month prison sentence.

• Wojciech Chodan (74) and Jeffrey Tesler (63) were extradited to the US in 2010 after having been charged in 2009 with bribing foreign officials to obtain business. They were only sentenced in February 2012. Mr Chodan received a year’s probation and a $20,000 fine, while Mr Tesler was handed a 21 month prison sentence. They argued in vain that none of their misconduct was US related.

• Richard O’Dwyer is a 24-year-old young man wanted in the US since May 2011 for alleged copyright infringement linked to TVShack.net, a website he had founded. This could cost him 10 years in prison, if he were to be extradited. A recent poll by YouGov suggests that only 9% of the UK population consider that the extradition would be warrented.

• Christopher Tappin is a retired business man who is accused by the US government of preparing to sell oxide batteries that can be used in the manufacture of missiles to Iran, a charge he vehemently denies. A federal arrest warrant by a grand jury in Texas was issued in 2007 and he was extradited in February 2012 without any evidence. He is likely to spend months if not years in jail awaiting trial.

• Julian Assange: see blog dated 29.07.12.

Every case has its own hardships, but generally they include being away from loved ones and support networks, not being able to access witnesses, having to cope with exorbitant costs, fear of the unknown and having to cope with a sinister system that works on the assumption that man was made for the law, rather than the other way round.