Alun Jones QC, Martin Henley and Samantha Davies, instructed by AM International Solicitors, will be appearing, pro bono publico, for two Wandsworth prisoners from Poland and Romania, in an important test case in the High Court on 22 April about coronavirus and extradition. This will be conducted by videolink.
The two men should have been extradited in February or March 2020 but they remain detained in Wandsworth Prison, where reports say there have been cases of conoravirus. They have not been told why. Their lawyers have discovered, by telephoning Westminster Magistrates’ Court, that the time for extradition, normally 10 days from the last court hearing, has been extended administratively without their knowledge or an opportunity to argue their cases. The virus appears to have shut down extraditions almost completely, though court proceedings leading to extradition continue.
Existing legal guidance says that such administrative extensions to the 10 day time limit can be agreed between authorities for a short period but it appears that the two men, and no doubt dozens more, will be kept indefinitely in custody, without reasons, pending the end of the pandemic. The UK taxpayer will pay. Westminster Magistrates’ Court is likely to make monthly administrative extensions at the request of European courts and prosecutors without any normal judicial process.
Alun Jones QC, Martin Henley, and Samantha Davies argue that the prisoners should be released because the whole scheme of extradition relies on tight timetables rather than indefinite confinement and because administrative detention without open court process is forbidden by the common law and the European Convention on Human Rights.
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