- British citizens will be extradited for what critics
have called a "thought crime" under a new European arrest warrant,
the Government has conceded.
-
- Campaigners fear they could even face trial for broadcasting
"xenophobic or racist" remarks - such as denying the Holocaust
- on an internet chatroom in another country.
-
- The Government has undertaken that if such "offences"
take place in Britain the perpetrators would not be extradited - but it
will be for the courts to decide the location of the crime.
-
- This opens up the prospect of a judge agreeing to extradite
someone whose observations, though made in Britain, were broadcast exclusively
in a country where they constitute a crime.
-
- Legislation now before Parliament will make "xenophobia
and racism" one of 32 crimes for which the European arrest warrant
can be issued without the existing safeguard of dual criminality. This
requires that an extraditable offence must also be a crime in the UK.
-
- Alongside the arrest warrant, EU ministers are negotiating
a new directive to establish a common set of offences to criminalise xenophobia
and racism.
-
- Countries such as Germany and Austria have crimes such
as denying the Holocaust which have no equivalent in Britain. Under current
laws, if a British citizen committed this offence in Germany and returned
to the UK, he could not be extradited.
-
- However, this will change when the arrest warrant becomes
law next year. Lord Filkin, the Home Office minister, told MPs: "If
someone went to Germany and stood up in Cologne market place and shouted
the odds, denying the Holocaust, and then came back [to Britain], they
would be subject to extradition under the European arrest warrant."
-
- Holocaust denial laws are in place in seven EU countries
but they would be a big departure for Britain, where a risk of fomenting
public disorder is needed before a thought becomes a crime.
-
- A German historian who claimed that Auschwitz prisoners
enjoyed cinemas, a swimming pool and brothels was sentenced to 10 months
in jail.
-
- Lord Filkin has insisted that no one would be extradited
"in respect of conduct which has occurred here and which is legal
here". But when he was asked by the European scrutiny committee of
the House of Commons whether comments originating in Britain but carried
abroad on television or through an internet chatroom would be extraditable,
he said: "It will be for the courts to decide."
-
- While he was adamant that a British citizen would not
be extradited for a xenophobia or racism offence if part of the conduct
took place in the UK, the committee asked whether this principle would
be made clear in the Extradition Bill now before Parliament.
-
- The proposed EU directive would extend the offences of
racism and xenophobia to include discrimination on the grounds of religious
conviction - something that was dropped by the Government more than a year
ago following fierce opposition.
-
- Britain has negotiated a deal under which the offences
will only apply when they involve incitement to violence. Lord Filkin said
this was in line with current UK race laws.
-
- However, Britain has been forced to concede a review
after two years at which point the directive could be extended to opinions
that are simply considered offensive and not just those likely to incite
violence. Agreement on the directive has been held up because some EU countries
want a "low threshold for criminality on these issues".
-
- Philip Duly, campaign manager for the Freedom Association,
said the Government should protect citizens from extradition for what he
called "thought crimes".
-
- He added: "The Government has previously maintained
that no one will be extradited for conduct which is not a crime in the
UK. But here we have Lord Filkin admitting that there are circumstances
which will be decided not by ministers but by courts."
-
-
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