A REVIEW OF THE UNITED KINGDOM’S EXTRADITION ARRANGEMENTS (Following Written Ministerial Statement by the Secretary of State for the Home Department of 8 September 2010) Presented to the Home Secretary on 30 September 2011 This report is also available online at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ ~ 2 ~ The Rt Hon Sir Scott Baker was called to the Bar in 1961, and practised in a range of legal areas, including criminal law and professional negligence. He became a Recorder in 1976 and was appointed as a High Court judge in 1988. In 1999, he presided over the trial of Great Western Trains following the Southall rail crash in 1997 and in the same year was the judge who tried Jonathan Aitken. He was the lead judge of the Administrative Court between 2000 and 2002 when he was appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, presiding over the inquests into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed. He also sat regularly in the Divisional Court hearing appeals and judicial reviews in extradition cases. He retired in 2010 and is currently a Surveillance Commissioner, a member of the Bermuda Court of Appeal and a member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. David Perry QC is a barrister and joint head of chambers at 6 King’s Bench Walk, Temple. From 1991 to 1997, Mr Perry was one of the Standing Counsel to the Department of Trade and Industry. From 1997 to 2001, he was Junior Treasury Counsel to the Crown at the Central Criminal Court and Senior Treasury Counsel from 2001 until 2006, when he took silk. He prosecutes and defends and has extensive experience of extradition and mutual legal assistance cases. He also acts as a consultant to the Commonwealth Secretariat and has advised overseas governments on the drafting and implementation of legislation. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Blackstone’s Criminal Practice and the Criminal Law Review. Anand Doobay is a partner at solicitors Peters & Peters and has a wealth of experience in the field of judicial co-operation. He has focused in recent years on representing the subject of extradition requests but also advises overseas governments. He has a particular expertise in dealing with politically sensitive or high profile cases. He is the co-author of a well regarded text on extradition and mutual legal assistance and authors the section on extradition in Blackstone’s Criminal Practice. Mr Doobay is a trustee of Fair Trials International, a council Member of the human rights organisation Justice and a former member of the Law Society of England and Wales’ Committees for International Human Rights and Criminal Law. ~ 3 ~ CONTENTS Part 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 8 Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................................... 11 Part 2 Extradition .................................................................................................................. 20 Summary Overview ............................................................................................................ 20 Summary of the Current Law .............................................................................................. 22 Part 3 Historical Outline ....................................................................................................... 26 The Extradition Act 1870: Foreign States .......................................................................... 32 Double/Dual Criminality ..................................................................................................... 35 Specialty .............................................................................................................................. 37 Offences of a Political Character ........................................................................................ 37 The Prima Facie Case Requirement ................................................................................... 39 Habeas Corpus .................................................................................................................... 40 The Secretary of State’s Discretion ..................................................................................... 40 The Admission of Evidence ................................................................................................ 41 The Fugitive Offenders Legislation: Her Majesty’s Dominions and ................................. 42 Commonwealth Countries ................................................................................................... 42 The Admission of Evidence ................................................................................................ 46 The Republic of Ireland ...................................................................................................... 46 The Minimum Levels of Seriousness .................................................................................. 49 Double Jeopardy ................................................................................................................. 50 Fiscal Offences .................................................................................................................... 50 Extraterritorial Offences ..................................................................................................... 51 Scottish Practice .................................................................................................................. 51 Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands ................................................ 52 Proposals for Reform .......................................................................................................... 52 The 1985 Green Paper ......................................................................................................... 52 The White Paper .................................................................................................................. 54 The Criminal Justice Act 1988 ............................................................................................ 56 The Extradition Act 1989 .................................................................................................... 56 The European Convention on Extradition ........................................................................... 57 The Procedures Under the 1989 Act ................................................................................... 61 The Seriousness Threshold ................................................................................................. 62 Extraterritorial Offences ..................................................................................................... 63 The Procedure Under Part III .............................................................................................. 63 The Powers of the High Court ............................................................................................ 66 The Secretary of State’s Discretion ..................................................................................... 66 Authentication of Documents ............................................................................................. 68 Scotland and Northern Ireland and the 1989 Act ................................................................ 68 Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and the 1989 Act ....................................................... 68 The 2001 Review ................................................................................................................ 69 The Historical Development: Summary .............................................................................. 71 The United Nations Model Treaty on Extradition .............................................................. 72 Part 4 The European Union and the Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant .................................................................................................................................. 73 The European Union ........................................................................................................... 73 The Treaty on European Union: The Maastricht Treaty .................................................... 74 The Schengen Information System (“SIS”) ........................................................................ 75 The Treaty of Amsterdam ................................................................................................... 77 The Treaty of Nice .............................................................................................................. 77 The Hague Programme ....................................................................................................... 78 ~ 4 ~ The Reform Treaty: The Treaty of Lisbon ......................................................................... 78 The United Kingdom and Protocol No. 21 ......................................................................... 79 Framework Decisions ......................................................................................................... 80 Other Relevant Framework Decisions ................................................................................ 81 Enforcement of Financial Penalties ............................................................................... 81 Trials in Absentia ............................................................................................................ 82 The