What Is Extradition And How Can You Appeal It?

Since countries have sovereign authority over their borders and the population within, there is no obligation for one to cooperate when it comes to criminal deportation. Due to this, a special process known as extradition is carried out.

Extradition is how countries are able to prosecute criminals for crimes when the criminal has left the country where the crime was committed. It is an agreement that allows countries to demand deportation of criminals so that they can be put through court trials.

However, the process isn’t as easy as it may seem. Not only do some countries dislike each other but also many countries have laws that directly contradict the other. Even though most of the time countries do send the suspects back to where they came from, there are still many reasons why that might not happen.

Firstly, the criminal offense should be illegal in both the receiving and extraditing countries. For example, a strict Middle Eastern country would have a hard time extraditing someone in the Western countries for disobeying the Sharia law. Additionally, many countries are less willing to extradite people over religious and political reasons. Just as the case of Julian Assange whose extradition request has been denied by Ecuador.

Another reason can be that the extraditing country disagrees with the potential punishment that the criminal is going to receive. For example, a country that disagrees with the death penalty, like France, would disagree to extradite a murderer to the US on the chance that they might get the death penalty when they go back. Similarly, if the country officials believe that the criminal may be tortured if extradited, they would also refuse.

Finally, some countries like Japan and Germany don’t necessarily extradite their own citizens, however they do often prosecute them within their own borders. Still, some types of offences are considered international crimes and directly obligate the host country to extradite the suspect/criminal. Most of the time, these crimes are terrorism related.

Also, some countries like the US have been implicated in what is called “extraordinary rendition” where the suspects are kidnapped for prosecution and taken to secretive locations called “black sites”.

Some countries, however, have simple extradition treaties with each other, but no country has extradition treaties with all countries. Which means that if you commit a crime, there will always be a country where you can and hide and seek refuge.

Appealing extradition from the UK and its acceptance depends on a number of factors like country, territory and types of offences, etc. which are explained by the officials here. If you’re in the UK, consult Wembley Solicitors for friendly and expert legal advices regarding affairs related to immigration, family law, children law, criminal and more.

Feel free to reach out them.