Written evidence submitted by Ms Gareth
Peirce, Birnberg Peirce & Partners
I am writing to the Committee at the suggestion of
Sadiq Khan, the Member of Parliament for two British men whose
extradition is currently being sought by the USA, Babar Ahmad
and Syed Talha Ahsan.
I am aware that the Committee has received a considerable
amount of evidence from individuals and organisations relating
to UK / US extradition arrangements.
The reason for Mr Khan's suggesting that we might
have additional information of assistance to the Committee, stems
from the experience of the past three and a half years in particular,
during which the European Court of Human Rights has frozen Mr
Ahmad's extradition and that of his alleged co-accused, Mr Ahsan.
Mr Ahmad was one of the first two persons to have
been made the subject of a US request after the "fast track"
procedure was introduced by the 2003 Act. The issues raised in
their respective cases (and in other cases subsequently) have
caused the Court to give the most careful consideration as to
whether any issue raises a potential violation by the UK of their
Convention rights were they to be extradited. It is extremely
unusual for the Court to have accorded this degree of interim
protection to any extradition case and its consideration has addressed
facts and issues of law that go far beyond the circumstances of
one particular case. For example the Court has asked the UK to
address the question of whether their confinement in extreme isolation,
potentially for life, and / or the imposition of a sentence of
life imprisonment without parole would violate the right to freedom
from torture or cruel and inhuman punishment (the question being
asked by the Court of the UK is whether the Eighth Amendment to
the US Constitution provides protection equivalent to Article
3 ECHR).
In investigations of a range of potential violations
of the ECHR that might occur if extradition to the USA were to
take place (almost all of which would be entirely avoided if any
of the many individuals to whom they might apply were to be tried
in the UK), we have discovered a range of measures taken by other
European countries which protect their citizens from exposure
to such risks.
May I apologise for writing to you so late in the
day. I do so as Mr Khan has suggested that it may be that some
of the research we have carried out into these cases (and others
which are also now frozen by the European Court for similar reasons)
might be of assistance to the Committee before it concludes its
deliberations.
I will be pleased to make available all of the written
submissions in the case, and accompanying evidence, or if it were
to be more manageable to do so in light of the now very extensive
evidence that has been submitted to Europe, to summarise that
evidence for the Committee and to do so in person if the Committee
were so to request.
I would be very pleased to discuss with you any ways
in which, if it was thought appropriate, I and colleagues in this
office might assist the Committee.
December 2010
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