Britons face fast route to EU courts

BRITONS will be handed over to face trial in European Union states within three months, rather than years, under fast-track extradition proposals published yesterday.

The plans to replace the UK’s ageing extradition laws also involve the controversial European arrest warrant, designed to stop fugitives abusing the judicial system.

The warrant, which comes into force in 2004, allows any citizen of the 15 EU countries to be arrested and extradited for a range of offences - even though some of them are not even crimes in Britain.

The Extradition Bill, released yesterday, will reduce the role of politicians in deciding contentious cases. Ministers will only be involved when the suspect faces the death penalty or would be protected from potential persecution.

Bob Ainsworth, the Home Office minister, said the reform is long overdue. "Extradition requests to the UK have trebled since the 1970s," he said.

"Doing nothing is not an option. Our creaking extradition laws are in need of radical overhaul."

Under the present system, it takes about 18 months and 125,000 to extradite someone from the UK. The new system will cut this to three months - with a bill of less than 30,000.

The adoption of the European arrest warrant will stop some countries - such as Italy, France, Luxembourg and Greece - refusing to extradite for financial offences.

"Unless people are happy that tax evaders can simply move to other parts of the EU and become immune to justice then something needs to be done about it," Mr Ainsworth said. "The European arrest warrant will end that ability."

He insisted that European countries will not be able to extradite British citizens from the UK unless they can prove that an offence had been committed on their soil.

Any suspect being extradited from Britain would first face a hearing before a British district judge and retain the right to appeal to the High Court in England or Court of Session in Scotland.

The Conservatives reacted angrily to the plans. Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said: "We are deeply sceptical about the government’s proposals. We will vigorously oppose any new powers to arrest and deport British citizens for activities that are not crimes here in the UK - and any measures that compromise the presumption of innocence."

Mr Letwin said he supports the idea of a European arrest warrant in terrorism cases. But the proposed scheme covers 31 other offences, including some which are not identical to British law.

The list includes: participation in a criminal organisation, terrorism, human trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, trafficking in drugs, trafficking in weapons, corruption and fraud.