The Ugly Face of US Extradition & UK GovAdam Belaon
Last Updated on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:50
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Theresa May ‘at her discretion’ decided that Gary Mckinnon should not be sent to the US on the grounds of medical advice that he had Asperger’s syndrome and was a serious suicide risk. The US authorities have described McKinnon's actions as the "biggest military computer hack of all time". Yet two weeks earlier Syed Talha Ahsan was extradited to the US also having been diagnosed with Asperger’s also having been accused of illegal computer related activity. Despite the fact that Mckinnon has admitted guilt and Talha maintains his innocence, Theresa May still felt this was fair.
Today Theresa May revealed the ugly face of her government’s duplicitousness and deceitfulness over the issue of extradition to the united-states. The home secretary’s decision and the events surrounding it demonstrate an overwhelming collusion from the government to apply the extradition laws insidiously.
Theresa May ‘at her discretion’ decided that Gary Mckinnon should not be sent to the US on the grounds of medical advice that he had Asperger’s syndrome and was a serious suicide risk. The US authorities have described McKinnon's actions as the "biggest military computer hack of all time". Yet two weeks earlier Syed Talha Ahsan was extradited to the US also having been diagnosed with Asperger’s also having been accused of illegal computer related activity. Despite the fact that Mckinnon has admitted guilt and Talha maintains his innocence, Theresa May still felt this was fair.
His extradition has meant he faces a lengthy stretch of solitary confinement awaiting trial and additionally the strong possibility of a life sentence of solitary confinement after what promises to be a show trial. Why would Theresa May not of think him to also be a serious suicide risk knowing his Asperger’s will exacerbate his experience of solitary confinement to being that of an early grave. It seems if you’re a Muslim with mental frailty it’s okay to throw you in the pit.
Knowing the contradictions, the home office wheeled out a spokesperson to misinform The Huffington Post UK: “Each case is decided entirely on its own merits. Syed Ahsan’s case was considered at length by the UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights, which decided that extradition to the United States would not breach his human rights.” He neglected to mention that McKinnon was also rejected at Strasbourg and domestic courts and it was only Theresa May’s discretionary interjection that made the difference.
Conveniently her decision was delayed on numerous occasions, but timely expedience came shortly after the ‘problem cases’ of the five high profile suspects deported two weeks ago. More disconcertingly the measures that the home secretary announced today of a ‘forum bar’ would have meant that those extraditions would not have occurred as a hearing would have to take place in open court to decide where a person should go on trial. Prosecutors will have to justify any attempt to send a suspect to the US for an alleged crime which took place here. The final decision will rest with a judge. Currently, British prosecutors decide in private if they think the case should be tried here. However, the British government didn’t want Babar Ahmad or Talha Ahsan to be tried here because under the scrutiny of the courts there would be little to answer to. After all what does a terrorist website look like? A website giving on the ground news coverage of war-zones throughout the Muslim world seems to me to be within the boundaries of freedom of expression and speech as espoused by those who claim to uphold it. Even if convicted of the alleged crimes in the UK, their sentence would have already been served by the time spent awaiting trial. Every effort was made to ensure this didn’t happen, with evidence gathered by the British Police passed on to US authorities, circumventing the usual procedure of evidence being given to the crown prosecution service. To date these shady practices are known about and promptly ignored by the home secretary without explanation, it is inconceivable that this hasn’t been sanctioned by malevolent officials giving the nod and the wink to get through their agenda. Put simply this government threw out the rule book and sent them to a place where they knew they stood no chance of justice, with the pretext that the so called website in question was hosted on an American server for a two month period thereby claiming it fell within US jurisdiction.
Gary Mckinnon has enjoyed the support of Dominic Rabb, David Davis and other hard hitting MP’s calling for his extradition to be halted. Nick Clegg today said ‘I've long argued that I think it would have been wrong to send someone as vulnerable as Gary McKinnon to the United States and also I'm delighted that the home secretary has set out some plans about how we rebalance the extradition arrangements between the UK and the USA,"
Babar Ahmad had Sadiq Khan, his local MP supposedly backing his corner. Sadiq Khan didn’t turn up to the debate in the House of Commons on extradition. With friends like this who needs enemies. He did however turn up to the debate in the lower chamber precisely because he wasn’t allowed to say anything and was able to maintain his veneer of being a well-wisher. Statements of support from Sadiq Khan seem harder to come by than blood from the proverbial stone. This whole affair demonstrated Sadiq Khan’s wilful haplessness. Had it not been for the efforts of Caroline Lucas MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP things would no doubt have got brushed under the carpet with greater ease.
We have a system that offers a voice for some and not for others. Regrettably, wider than this, today laid bare the failure of non-government agencies like ‘Liberty’ and even the ‘National Autistic Society’ who failed to speak up because it was easier to stay quiet and evade the criticism of being besmirched as terrorist sympathisers. This conspiracy of circumstance is no doubt the result of years of anti-Muslim demonization and equivocation with terrorism. We live in a country where the mere accusation coincided with a rabble-rousing press is sufficient grounds for loathing and assumption of guilt.
The Liberty director, Shami Chakrabarti, welcomed the McKinnon decision. "This is a great day for rights, freedoms and justice in the United Kingdom," she said. "The home secretary has spared this vulnerable man the cruelty of being sent to the US and accepted Liberty's longstanding argument for change to our rotten extradition laws." Yet Shami Chakrabati and her organisation were deafeningly silent over the abuse of extradition with Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan despite many requests for support. Until it seems the very day before the high court ruling where they finally put pen to paper to offer tokenistic support – the cynical side of me says it was merely to ensure that history recorded that they opposed the longest detention without trial case ever seen in the UK.
An official statement was released by NAS "The National Autistic Society’’ has called for extradition proceedings to be stopped and for Mr McKinnon - who has Asberger's Syndrome - to stand trial in the UK. It has said previously that extraditing him could have "serious and potentially tragic ramifications". Yet when Talha Ahsan’s family sought their support they were told in writing “Unfortunately, the NAS is not able to get involved in all individual cases and our legal campaigning resources are currently targeted at issues including cuts to health and social care services.”
Mckinnon’s mum has been quoted as saying: "This was supposed to be for terrorists this treaty..."
More accurately she should have said this treaty was meant to be for suspected Muslim terrorists and not for anyone else. For those who wish to cite the case of Christopher Tappin and the Nat west 3 as counter examples of white men being extradited, they should realise that this is the whole point, it is only the arrogance of the American administration and it’s iron fisted application of the treaty that has meant this government has had to redress the situation. Had the American’s played ball not a finger would have been lifted to change things. It’s also worth noting that both Christopher Tappin and the Nat West 3 were given bail whilst the Muslim suspects have been given solitary confinement whilst awaiting trial. Unfortunately with the government and media being proponents of anti-Muslim sentiment the public outrage comes when Muslim suspects aren’t deported quickly enough and is hypocritically present if similar treatment is meted out to white non-Muslims. The governments pre-meditated cynical manoeuvring has led it to its unethical unprincipled politics of conniving hypocrisy and shown that their racist Islamophobic credentials are alive and well.
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here to donate to HHUGS (Helping Househoulds Under Great Stress) who are currently supporting the familes of our five brothers extradited to the US.
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