Habeas Corpus under threat

The European Parliament has adopted proposals under which British citizens could be convicted by foreign courts in their absence for traffic, credit card or other criminal offences. Extradition would be automatic under fast-track procedures at the behest of another European Union country on the basis of a decision by one of its courts. The proposals now go before the Council of Ministers.Philip Bradbourn MEP, the Conservative justice and home affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, has condemned the proposals, stating that: “This initiative would enable courts to pass judgments in absentia. It goes against one of the most fundamental corner-stones of British justice – that the accused has a right to defend himself at trial. If other EU countries want to go ahead with this proposal that’s their choice, but the British Government should have no part [of it].”A research paper produced by Open Europe (http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/tia.pdf) notes that:"In the UK there were no trials in absentia until 2001, and they are still not usually permitted. They can only be allowed under very strict circumstances. But the conditions which need to be fulfilled to hand over someone to another member state after they have been tried in their absence would be very weak. Crucially, under the proposal, it is no longer up to the executing country to decide whether the conditions are met. The country issuing the arrest warrant simply fills in the relevant section of the form. If the right box is ticked, the person must be handed over."Make no bones about it, our civil liberties are being slowly diminished. We must take a principled stand as fairness and the protection of our civil liberties are the essence of what this country stands for. Let us not turn our legal system inside out with such a distortion of one of the most basic principles of English Law.