Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that the strong likelihood that Asperger’s syndrome suffering Gary McKinnon would harm himself if extradited meant that doing so would be a breach of his human rights under EU law.
Forum bar
The ruling has triggered calls for the current extradition deal between the two countries – signed in 2003 in the aftermath of the terror attacks on New York and Washington DC – to be torn up and renegotiated.
According to a report in London-based newspaper, the Law Gazette, Ms May has announced that her officials will be looking at creating a ‘forum bar’, which would determine where a person should stand trial in allegations of a cross-border crime.
Inconsistency
A leader article in The Times newspaper points to the main inconsistency in the Extradition Act 2003 – that it requires the UK to prove a prima facia case before a US citizen can be extradited to Britain, while all the US authorities must show in the reverse circumstances is a ‘reasonable suspicion’.
Supporting reform of the legislation, The Times says ‘... an act framed to deal with suspected terrorists has caught a wider group in its net, including businessmen and UK citizens whose offences were arguably committed on home soil’.
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