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Home Office fails to protect British citizen, again

Despite more than 210,000 people signing Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’ petition,the Home Office have said that they do not intend to block the extradition of Richard O’Dwyer.

The petition sums up the absurdity of the situation – America is trying to prosecute a UK citizen for an alleged crime which took place on UK soil.

And the Home Office think that’s just fine.

In yet another stark illustration of how one-sided the UK-US extradition relationship has become – not to mention the subservience of officials who theoretically are supposed to protect the interests of British citizens – a 24 year old faces up to a decade in a US prison for copyright offences.

He has never been arrested or charged with an offence under UK law,  his site was not hosted in the US and he has lived in the UK all of his life. Basic principles of justice have been abandoned.

If there was a crime it should be investigated and tried here in the UK, like any other crime.

Richard’s fate now rests on his appeal later in the year. You can sign the petition here.

 

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Civil Liberties, Extradition, International, Legal Action, United States
  • Anonymous

    This government is in endemic contempt of the public yet again, whoever voted for this government should be dragged out back and shot. clegg is nowhere to be seen, as usual. and david camemoron continues the shit storm unabated. typical.

  • http://twitter.com/Penny_Dreadfull Penny Dreadfull

    The extradition law was tipped too far one way for 150 years, now it has tipped too far in the opposite direction, what needs to happen is that the UK-US rewrite this 2003 treaty and make it fair for both nations and NO EXTRADITION WITHOUT TRIAL! Not to mention that it’s a load of bollocks that Richard O’Dwyer couldn’t have broken a US copyright law since he wasn’t using a US web server nor marketing to the US. Richard O’Dwyer should certainly have been one of the miniscule 5% that the US “took back” when trading extraditions with the UK. Unfair!

  • Dr. P Leverette-Hulme

    It’s quite simple, crimes committed in the UK should be tried in the UK and that is the end of it. The decision as to whether a crime is committed or should be prosecuted in the UK is one for the Crown Prosecution Service, not ANY foreign police service, prosecutor or court. This applies to the EU Arrest Warrant as well.

    Extradition should be only used where a crime has been committed in another country and the suspect has fled here (even if a UK citizen) and it should still be subject to judicial oversight to stop UK citizens being sent abroad on trumped up or politically motivated charges.

    If this had formed the basis of the US/UK Extradition arrangements and the EU arrest warrant then all of the complaints of unfairness would have been removed.

    I am not protecting the rights of criminals to avoid paying for their crimes, but we have to deal with our own criminals in our own way, not just hand them over to foreign governments without due process of law.