The case of the “Natwest Three” perfectly sums up the bumbling, well-meaning but intellectually inadequate, knee-jerk reaction Blair government. Here goes the thinking…
Terrorist panic after 9/11 – let’s bring in some law to make sure those terrible judges don’t let human rights interfere with our friends, the Americans’, attempts to punish people – because George Bush says of course his justice system is fair.
Oops, didn’t notice that we’ve broken the centuries-old principle of reciprocity in extradition.
Oh well, never mind, the Americans are good chaps, they’ll only use it for the purposes intended.
Oh, now they are using it for three blokes who the Serious Fraud Office thinks have done nothing wrong. Never mind, US justice will sort it out eventually.
If the men have to spend two years in chains, away from their families, facing enormous legal tests with a lottery at the end to see if they’ll be free for another decade …
… well it is all in a good cause.
Four prominent law professors are the latest to speak out:
Keith Patchett, the emeritus professor of law at the University of Wales, said that issues in the NatWest Three case “raise basic questions about the preparedness of the [UK] Government, demonstrated in other matters too, to compromise vital legal protections honed over generations”.
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