European Arrest Warrant, new report
- Written by Unknown
In a report published today, the European Commission expresses concerns about the way the European Arrest Warrant is being used across Europe.
The Commission’s report highlights the alarming disproportionate use of the Warrant for low-level crimes, the absence of adequate defence rights guarantees across the European Union and poor detention conditions for those extradited.
The report urges Member States to use the Arrest Warrant for “major crimes” only, ensuring they consider “proportionality” by looking at the seriousness of the offence, length of the likely sentence and the costs and benefits of using an Arrest Warrant. Today’s report follows criticism of the Arrest Warrant last month from the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, who called the Arrest Warrant’s overuse “a threat to human rights”.
Jago Russell, Chief Executive of Fair Trials International, said:
“We are delighted that the EU has finally started to wake up to the overuse of the Arrest Warrant and the serious cases of injustice it has caused. Like a doting parent it was slow to recognise the faults with its flagship justice measure but we hope it will now take urgent steps to reform the Warrant and build a fair and effective extradition system that it can really be proud of.”
Since its introduction over seven years ago, the European Arrest Warrant has led to serious cases of injustice. Although they are necessary, proposed EU minimum standards on defence rights coupled with guidelines in the Arrest Warrant Handbook will not be enough to cure the flaws in the system and eradicate injustice. People have been extradited following grossly unfair trials, for convictions they knew nothing about, for extremely minor crimes and due to evidence obtained unlawfully.
Arrest Warrants have been issued decades after the events in question and cannot be removed even when a court has already refused to extradite. Extradition often leads to unacceptable periods of pre-trial detention, frequently in unacceptable conditions. Insufficient safeguards for human rights and a lack of judicial discretion have meant that unjust extraditions cannot be stopped.
Fair Trials International has been leading the call for reform of this system which, in 2009 alone, saw over 4,000 people surrendered to different EU countries.
For more information please contact Fair Trials International on +44 (0)20 7822 6370 or +44 (0)7950 849 851.
