1. Introduction
1.1 Import Extradition
Import extradition is the process whereby competent authorities from the United Kingdom seek the return of persons from another territory for one of the following purposes:
- To be prosecuted
- To be sentenced
- To serve a sentence that has already been imposed
Import extradition essentially falls into two broad categories.
The first category concerns extradition from Member States of the European Union where the European arrest warrant (EAW) is the mechanism used to seek surrender. In this category, Crown Prosecutors throughout England and Wales are responsible both for drafting EAWs in their own cases, and then applying to the court for their issue. EAWs are both issued and processed by judicial authorities without state involvement.
The second category concerns extradition from states outside the European Union. In these cases Crown Prosecutors throughout England and Wales are responsible for collating the necessary information for the specialist Extradition Unit of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division in London, who will draft the extradition request. The papers will then be passed to the Home Office's Extradition Unit for issue, as extradition requests to states outside the European Union are made on a state-to-state basis.
1.2 Export extradition
Export extradition is the process whereby competent authorities from another territory seek the extradition of a person from the United Kingdom to their territory, for one of the following purposes:
- To be prosecuted
- To be sentenced
- To serve a sentence that has already been imposed
The Extradition Unit of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division represents foreign authorities with regard to all export extradition requests. As Crown Prosecutors outside this unit have no role in export extradition cases, this guidance deals in the main with Import extradition. However, a brief outline of Export extradition is given, for information.
The City of Westminster Magistrates' Court deals with all extradition hearings in export extradition cases. Anyone arrested in England and Wales pursuant to an export extradition request should be brought before this court. If a person is brought before a different court, the prosecutor at court should inform the bench of the above.
Relevance of export extradition to ongoing domestic cases
Occasionally someone arrested pursuant to an extradition request from another territory will be facing prosecution for an unrelated offence in the United Kingdom. If this situation arises, the extradition court must adjourn the extradition proceedings until the domestic matter concludes.
If the wanted person is serving a sentence in the United Kingdom, the extradition court may adjourn extradition proceedings until that sentence has been served. Alternatively the extradition court can consider the temporary transfer of the wanted person to the requesting state, subject to the receipt of undertakings as to the status of the wanted person in the requesting state during that temporary transfer; for example an undertaking that the wanted person will be remanded in custody whilst in the other state.
Another possibility is that the wanted person is a witness or a suspect in a domestic case. In either of these situations the extradition process will go ahead as normal. An extradition request from another country cannot be postponed because the wanted person is a witness or a suspect in domestic proceedings in England and Wales.
