Extradition Treaty

It really is time the dreadful, one sided and completely unfair Extradition Treaty was put on hold pending investigation and a renegotiation.

Richard O'Dwyer from Sheffield for example. His “crime” was running a website that showed links to content some of which breached copyright, he did not host any of it, he has never visited the US, his site was never hosted in the US, he never targeted a US audience. British Police have never shown any interest in attempting to prosecute him for any alleged crimes, indeed similar sites have in fact won their trials.


Yet, Richard is now fighting extradition to the US. We have a treaty that allows the US to kidnap any British Citizen, whenever they want, for any reason (or none!) even if you have never intentionally done anything to the US. I say Anti American stuff sometimes, if what I have said in any way breaches the laws of the United States, despite being in the UK, they could have me extradited to face charges. THAT is how far reaching the treaty is, it effectively allows the United States to impose and enforce US Law on British Citizens living within the United Kingdom.

You might think the UK Appeal Judge would not allow such stuff to happen? Well….. thats the other brilliant part of the Treaty – the US does not have to show ANY Prima Facie evidence of a crime. It is literally the case that a US Prosecutor will contact the UK Court System and say “we think he/she is a bad’un, honest guv, god’s truth, would I lie?” And that’s' it. Due Legal Process eh. So much for civil rights.

A page for a group campaigning against the treaty is below:
http://www.friends-extradited.org/