ninme

Unbelievable.

Times Online - Three Britons to stand trial in US over Enron

The European Court of Human Rights today refused to halt extradition proceedings against three British bankers wanted in the United States on fraud charges relating to the collapse of energy company Enron. …

The so-called NatWest Three have been fighting against their extradition since a High Court ruling in February. They ran out of British avenues of appeal last week when the House of Lords ruled that it would not hear the case.

The three men have consistently argued that most of the alleged offences took place in Britain and that any trial should be held under British jurisdiction. They claimed that being forced to stand trial in Enron’s home state of Texas would be unjust and incompatible with European human rights law.

The final appeal, however, was a challenge against the legitimacy of the controversial fast-track extradition treaty between the US and the UK.

Under the terms of the 2003 deal designed to combat terrorism, the US can extradite suspects from the UK without prima facie evidence that a crime has been committed. It has been attacked by business and human rights groups, including Liberty, which claim that the act has been used by the US to target white-collar crime.

Bah. Unbelievable.

Telegraph - ‘NatWest Three’ extradition inevitable

One of the main complaints in the case of the ‘NatWest Three’ and other cases was that the US has not yet ratified the 2003 extradition treaty between the two countries, leaving the UK unable to seek the extradition of American citizens in the same way.

Hey how’s it going with those IRA extraditions?