- cross-posted to:
- unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
- cross-posted to:
- unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
A German court has refused to extradite to the UK a man accused of drug trafficking because of concerns about prison conditions in Britain. The decision has been described as a “severe rebuke” and “an embarrassment for the UK” by a member of the Law Society. The case involves an Albanian man who lived in the UK. He was accused of trafficking approximately 5kg of cocaine and of laundering about £330,000.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A German court has refused to extradite to the UK a man accused of drug trafficking because of concerns about prison conditions in Britain, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind.
Westminster magistrates court issued an international arrest warrant, also known as an Interpol red notice, asking for him to be returned to the UK.
A police station in Manchester replied to the court’s first request on the final day of the deadline for a response, saying 20,000 extra prison places were being built to deal with the problem of overcrowding.
Failing to receive the assurances it sought about UK prison conditions, the German court determined the extradition of the Albanian as “currently inadmissible”.
The trade and cooperation agreement concluded between the EU and Britain in 2020 states that an arrest warrant can be subject to certain conditions, and “if there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a real threat to the protection of the fundamental rights of the requested person, the executing judicial authority may, where appropriate, require additional guarantees”.
There have been similar court decisions before under the European arrest warrant framework, but in relation to member states whose records on prisons and human rights the UK would not wish to compare itself with.”
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