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Thursday, December 06, 2007

'US says it has right to kidnap British citizens'

From The Sunday Times
2 Dec 2007

" ... AMERICA has told Britain that it can "kidnap" British citizens if they are
wanted for crimes in the United States.

A  senior  lawyer  for  the  American government has told the Court of
Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under
American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of
the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on
fraud  charges.  More  than  a  dozen  other  British  executives,
including  senior  managers  at  British  Airways and BAE Systems, are
under  investigation  by  the  US  authorities and could face criminal
charges in America.

Until  now  it  was  commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping
only in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects.

The  American  government  has  for  the first time made it clear in a
British  court  that  the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise,
suspected of a crime by Washington.

Legal  experts  confirmed this weekend that America viewed extradition as
just  one  way  of  getting  foreign  suspects back to face trial.
Rendition,  or  kidnapping,  dates back to 19th-century bounty hunting and
Washington believes it is still legitimate.

The  US  government's  view emerged during a hearing involving Stanley
Tollman,  a  former  director of Chelsea football club and a friend of
Baroness Thatcher, and his wife Beatrice.

The  Tollmans,  who  control  the  Red  Carnation  hotel group and are
resident  in  London,  are  wanted  in  America for bank fraud and tax
evasion.  They  have  been  fighting  extradition  through the British
courts.

During  a  hearing  last month Lord Justice Moses, one of the Court of
Appeal  judges,  asked  Alun Jones QC, representing the US government,
about  its treatment of Gavin, Tollman's nephew. Gavin Tollman was the
subject of an attempted abduction during a visit to Canada in 2005.

Jones  replied  that  it  was  acceptable under American law to kidnap
people if they were wanted for offences in America. "The United States
does have a view about procuring people to its own shores which is not
shared," he said.

He  said  that  if  a  person  was  kidnapped by the US authorities in
another country and was brought back to face charges in America, no US
court  could rule that the abduction was illegal and free him: "If you
kidnap a person outside the United States and you bring him there, the
court  has no jurisdiction to refuse -- it goes back to bounty hunting
days in the 1860s."

Mr  Justice  Ouseley,  a  second judge, challenged Jones to be "honest
about [his] position".

Jones replied: "That is United States law." ... "
 

 

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