It is estimated that in 2010, some 1,000 UK citizens were affected by the EU Arrest Warrant. The numbers have since gone up and some families have found it difficult to find out where their family member has been taken to.
Lib Dem MEP Sir Graham Watson supported the 2004 EU directive from Brussels when it was brought in to enable the arrest of murderers and terrorists after the shock of 9/11. However, it has caused the loss of personal freedom rather than anything else, and leaves individuals vulnerable to the burgeoning power of the European Superstate of currently 28 countries and further weakness national state identity. But Nick Clegg, deputy PM in his debate on the EU last week was extolling the virtues of the European Arrest Warrant
Geography does matter, Law in England evolved to protect people, and a person is presumed innocent until proved guilty. The EU Arrest Warrant has resulted in the loss of rights of British citizens who can be removed from their homes purely on an accusation of wrong doing even BEFORE an investigation by police has begun. Our legal system has Little means or rights to resist these foreign applications for extradition. Once the accused is in another EU country they are at the mercy of another legal system and a language they may not understand.
The organisation ‘Fair Trials International’ “has serious concerns about the European Arrest Warrant. In practice, the system has been interpreted as leaving no scope for the British courts to prevent an extradition even where…… it would lead to clear injustice…..”
William Dartmouth, UKIP MEP has assisted in helping two of his constituents, Michael Turner and Jason McGoldrick who were extradited and put in jail in Hungary in November 2009 under the guises of the EU Arrest Warrant. He says the EU Arrest Warrant is an “ill thought out, ill considered, inappropriate piece of law and it needs to be looked at again and there needs to be much, much better safeguards.” Lord Dartmouth went to Hungary and managed to get the men released on bail. He is concerned about mistaken identity and identity theft affecting people’s rights and says “Nowadays because of mistaken identity and identity theft it is not an overstatement and is entirely accurate to say that every British Citizen is at risk and can be carted off to a strange country and put in jail.”
The English Democrats are concerned with the implications for England and the real threat from the EU arrest warrant. As the English Democrats prospective candidate for London in the EU elections in May 2014 I believe the sooner England is out of the EU and defending its own borders, the safer the country will be as we won’t be tied to Brussels directives.
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