Extradition Bill
Bringing Criminals to Justice
Outside the EU
The Bill aims to simplify extradition from the United
Kingdom with not only the EU but also the rest of the
world (these are called category two countries).
Countries such as the United States and those in the
Commonwealth make up a significant amount of the UK's
extradition traffic and would all benefit from speedier
extradition arrangements.
We have retained strong and specific safeguards to
guarantee that the rights of the defendant are protected
when extraditing to those countries.
Key Proposals
- The safeguards of dual criminality
and speciality will be retained.
- The Bill contains a power to
designate countries by an Order in Council for
whom we can disapply the prima facie evidence
requirement.
- The appeals procedures will be
streamlined.
- The Secretary of State will have
to approve the surrender of all fugitives to category
two countries.
- No extradition will take place
where the request is believed to be made for the
purpose of punishing a person on account of his
race, religion or political opinion or where extradition
would breach his rights under the European Convention
on Human Rights.
The arrangements for non-EU states
mirror those we have at present but endeavour to remove
the unnecessary and wasteful duplication of hearings
and appeals that presently occur.
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