Spot the difference, two people are threatened with extradition for alleged criminal offences. One, who has a conviction for using a fake passport and is suspected of links to terrorist organisations is threatened with extradition to Jordan on terrorism charges and has been living off the state on benefits, the other is a tax paying member of society who ran an export business, is also a golf club president and a respected member of society who is now awaiting extradition to the USA on charges of supplying arms to Iran.
The difference is, according to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, is one has human rights whilst the other does not. The one who the BBC states on its web-site: “Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, is one of the most influential Islamist clerics in Europe, supporting jihadist causes. British judges have described him as truly dangerous". The ECHR thinks he should be protected from extradition as it would violate his human rights. The other, 67 year old Christopher Tappin, whose most dangerous activity so far has been a dodgy golf swing, according to the ECHR can be deported as his human rights, it seems, do not apply. One is protected from the Jordanian courts whilst the other is not protected from one of the most brutal prisons in the USA in Texas.
This highlights not only the complete abandonment of the British people by all past Governments since Heath, especially the shameful Government led by Tony Blair who was quite happy to place every single British subject at the mercy of both the European Arrest Warrant and also a one-sided extradition treaty with the USA. It is this treaty that now entitles the USA to demand the arrest of any British subject, such as Christopher Tappin, leaving them at the total mercy of foreign courts without any protection from the very the British Government whose duty it should be to protect them.
The British people have been shamefully abandoned, and David Cameron should also be shammed by this as it it has yet again highlighted one more of his growing list of broken promises. Before he was elected into office he promised to repeal this treaty with the USA but has not done so, leaving Mr Tappin to the mercy of the US judicial system and the threat of facing the rest of his life in prison if he refuses to plea bargain.
As most readers will know, Christopher Tappin, who retired in 2008, has been accused by the USA of illegally supplying Iran with five industrial batteries which, according to the US prosecutors, were key components of the Hawk Air Defence Missile which was being sold without government permission. Mr Tappin states that they were sold for use in the car industry and had no reason to suspect they had a military use.
In the days when British Governments saw it as their duty to protect British subjects, any country demanding the extradition of any British person were expected to have substantial proof of criminal activity, without such evidence that person would not be extradited. Now the USA and the EU can come along and snatch anyone they like from their homes and families in the UK, haul them off to whatever injustice awaits, and our Government can do little other than wring its hands, make excuses and bleating noises as to why they can’t intervene, while at the same time they have obey the ECHR because it is enshrined in the unelected EU's Lisbon Treaty which instructs our leaders to protect none British people who are in the country illegally who have no loyalty to the UK and may even wish British subjects harm.
If Christopher Tappin declares his innocence, he can be held in a Texas prison for up to two years before going to court. Two years in one of these tough Texas institutions can be as good as a death sentence as they are violent places. If he is found guilty he will get a life sentence which means he will never be free again. If, as he states, is innocent of all charges made against him but declares his guilt to the court in Texas and goes for plea bargaining, he will have a criminal record for life but may only get two years in prison. Such a system is stacked against the truly innocent in the USA and for the sake of his human rights the British Government should revoke this grossly unfair treaty with the USA and do what it is supposed to do and protect Christopher Tappin who is one of our own.
The difference is, according to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, is one has human rights whilst the other does not. The one who the BBC states on its web-site: “Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, is one of the most influential Islamist clerics in Europe, supporting jihadist causes. British judges have described him as truly dangerous". The ECHR thinks he should be protected from extradition as it would violate his human rights. The other, 67 year old Christopher Tappin, whose most dangerous activity so far has been a dodgy golf swing, according to the ECHR can be deported as his human rights, it seems, do not apply. One is protected from the Jordanian courts whilst the other is not protected from one of the most brutal prisons in the USA in Texas.
This highlights not only the complete abandonment of the British people by all past Governments since Heath, especially the shameful Government led by Tony Blair who was quite happy to place every single British subject at the mercy of both the European Arrest Warrant and also a one-sided extradition treaty with the USA. It is this treaty that now entitles the USA to demand the arrest of any British subject, such as Christopher Tappin, leaving them at the total mercy of foreign courts without any protection from the very the British Government whose duty it should be to protect them.
The British people have been shamefully abandoned, and David Cameron should also be shammed by this as it it has yet again highlighted one more of his growing list of broken promises. Before he was elected into office he promised to repeal this treaty with the USA but has not done so, leaving Mr Tappin to the mercy of the US judicial system and the threat of facing the rest of his life in prison if he refuses to plea bargain.
As most readers will know, Christopher Tappin, who retired in 2008, has been accused by the USA of illegally supplying Iran with five industrial batteries which, according to the US prosecutors, were key components of the Hawk Air Defence Missile which was being sold without government permission. Mr Tappin states that they were sold for use in the car industry and had no reason to suspect they had a military use.
In the days when British Governments saw it as their duty to protect British subjects, any country demanding the extradition of any British person were expected to have substantial proof of criminal activity, without such evidence that person would not be extradited. Now the USA and the EU can come along and snatch anyone they like from their homes and families in the UK, haul them off to whatever injustice awaits, and our Government can do little other than wring its hands, make excuses and bleating noises as to why they can’t intervene, while at the same time they have obey the ECHR because it is enshrined in the unelected EU's Lisbon Treaty which instructs our leaders to protect none British people who are in the country illegally who have no loyalty to the UK and may even wish British subjects harm.
If Christopher Tappin declares his innocence, he can be held in a Texas prison for up to two years before going to court. Two years in one of these tough Texas institutions can be as good as a death sentence as they are violent places. If he is found guilty he will get a life sentence which means he will never be free again. If, as he states, is innocent of all charges made against him but declares his guilt to the court in Texas and goes for plea bargaining, he will have a criminal record for life but may only get two years in prison. Such a system is stacked against the truly innocent in the USA and for the sake of his human rights the British Government should revoke this grossly unfair treaty with the USA and do what it is supposed to do and protect Christopher Tappin who is one of our own.
2 comments:
Another example of where the 'establishment' has used commercial law (intended for the sea) to usurp the (common) law of the land. Quite unlawful in my opinion. They real guilty parties are definitely sat in Westminster. Type Captain Ranty into google - maybe we all need educating.
http://www.ukip.tv/?p=2556
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