Ad_Captandum
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2013
- Messages
- 468
- Reaction score
- 184
- Location
- Britain, Mother of Civilisation
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Socialist
If America wants to scrap it's extradition treaty with European countries that's fine with me, in fact it won't make much difference because we hardly ever have extradition granted any way and that includes those who have carried out acts of terrorism in the UK, whilst allow Americans to just extradite who ever they want and even use our country for extraordinary rendition.
The Italians are also getting tired of a one way US extradition treaty, this being the latest in a long line of cases such as the 1998 "Massacre of Cermis.", when American military jet clipped a ski lift cable, sending a gondola of 20 passengers to their deaths in the Italian Dolomite Mountains.
Italian prosecutors wanted the crew of the jet tried in Italy, but an Italian court ruled they should face courts-martial in the U.S., in accordance with NATO treaties. The aircraft's pilot and navigator were found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, even though the military admitted the plane had been flying lower and faster than authorized.
When it emerged that a video that captured the accident from inside the plane had been destroyed, they were dismissed from the Marine Corps. Italians were outraged, referring to the incident as the "massacre of Cermis."
In another incident that raised tensions, Egyptian cleric Abu Omar was seized off the streets of Milan in 2003 and smuggled to Egypt, where he says he was tortured and released four years later.
Although Italy did not request the extradition of any of the suspects, 22 CIA agents were convicted in absentia of the kidnapping and sentenced to prison time for their role in the abduction, but none ever served time in Italy.
Furthermore if Knox is not extradited for Murder, the Italians may review it's extradition treaty with the US, and guess what the Italian Mafia have close links to organised crime groups in the US, so that's good news for organised crime in the US.
Finally not returning a convicted murderer makes a mockery of attempts to extradite the likes of Edward Snowden or Julian Assange, and other countries including Russia will look at this case when determining extradition cases, it may even become a judicial precedent.
I don't think you're being entirely fair -- the US extradites both Britons and Americans to the UK all the time. There have been some high-profile cases, particularly to do with the IRA, that have aroused the ire of the UK about the UK-US extradition treaty, but if you read it, I think you'll agree it's pretty fair.
I agree with you that the US refusing to extradite some IRA members due to a very loose interpretation of what 'political refugee' means is pretty unstomachable. Equally, though, Britain flatly refuses to extradite murderers to the US unless the US promises not to go for the death penalty.