What can I do?

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! Please write to the Home Secretary expressing your concerns over the unequal extradition arrangements between the UK and the US. Open the letter to John Reid from the attachment below, add your name and address in the top right-hand corner and print off FOUR copies, sign and send them, one each for the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry. And once you've done so, can we ask you please to e-mail Melanie Riley at Bell Yard, who is monitoring the number of people writing in to highlight the level of support for the campaign.

Letter to John Reid, Home Secretary - July 2006

Register your support for the Daily Telegraph "Fair Trial for Business" campaign

Send an email to city.feedback@telegraph.co.uk or write to Fair Trials For Business campaign, City Office, The Daily Telegraph, 1 Canada Square, London E14 5DT

AND encourage AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN to do likewise.  So much work and effort has gone into getting us to this stage - lets spread the word now as far and as wide as we can!!!

Write a letter!

We have enclosed a couple of example letters that people have already written to their MPs, the Home Office etc. Feel free to copy and paste, or write your own letter describing why you feel this is wrong.

Who to?

The Press

Write letters to the Editors of any of the following newspapers

The Daily Mail    editorial@dailymailonline.co.uk
The Guardian     letters@guardian.co.uk
The Times         letters@thetimes.co.uk
The Independent  letters@independent.co.uk
The Daily Telegraph city.feedback@telegraph.co.uk
The Herald      letters@theherald.co.uk
The Scotsman http://members.scotsman.com/contact.cfm
 
Put forward our case!
 
1. The accused are British, they are accused of defrauding Nat West, not Enron, from London 
2.The Natural Forum for the case is here in the UK
3. The 2003 Extradition Act needs to be amended to include Natural Forum.
4. The US has extradition treaties with 119 other countries, UK citizens have less rights than those of any other country. We are the ones with the Special Relationship and soldiers in Iraq
5. The US hasn't ratified the treaty yet, and may never do so given pressure from the Irish-American lobby, so the US can extradite UK citizens by presenting charges, the UK still has to present prima facie evidence
6. Can the Government be trusted on ID cards? It said the 2003 Extradition Act was brought in to combat terrorists but they are allowing it to be used to extradited bankers
 
Mention the campaign and the website.

Your M.P

Write to your MP urging them to consider changes to the 2003 Extradition Act.
 
Send an email or fax to your local MP

Get faxing and emailing and keep the pressure on!

Who is my M.P?

 Click on the following link to find out your MP and their e-mail address:

http://www.locata.co.uk/commons/

What do I say?

There are some actual letters which have already been sent attached below, and some general ideas/themes taken from this website. Your letter might want to cover some combination of these, but write about what you feel strongly about.  Demand answers – we do not want your letters to go without a response! 

Please email your letters and responses to friendsextradited@hotmail.com

• Why should these men be extradited to stand trial in Texas when they are being accused of defrauding a UK Bank here in the UK?
• Why is it acceptable to make it so difficult for them to conduct their defence which is based almost exclusively in the UK?
• Why has the Serious Fraud Office not investigated this alleged crime when the clear accusation is that a major UK Bank has been defrauded here in London? 
• Why has the Financial Services Authority not brought a prosecution when as the regulator of the UK Banking sector it is required to do so if it suspects such a crime against a UK Bank? 
• Why has NatWest, the alleged victim, not made a complaint or brought a prosecution, nor sought return of the funds, when it has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders to do so? 
• Has there been any collusion in the decision to not even investigate these three men in the UK?
• Is it acceptable that UK citizens are automatically deemed as ‘fugitives’ when they decide to contest extradition to the United States?
• Is it fair that these men could be away from their families and children for up to two years preparing for a trial that should be held here? 
• Is that level of emotional and psychological pressure acceptable to impose on UK citizens, when a trial in the UK would allow them to defend themselves against the backdrop of staying in their own homes, with their family and friends giving them all the love and support they would require?
• Will the UK Government guarantee they will be granted bail, and can return to the UK to properly prepare for trial? 
• If they are denied bail and are incarcerated, which seems likely, how does this sit comfortably with their status in law as innocent men until proven guilty? 
• How can this be acceptable when in the UK they have been granted bail, and although it is difficult, they are able to largely continue with their lives and businesses?
• Will the UK Government guarantee that they will be able to subpoena the full information needed for their defence from a Texas court?  Will they guarantee that the three men will have the same access to information and witnesses that they would have if the trial were heard in the UK?
• Is it fair the costs of $1.5m each estimated for the three men are non-refundable, even if they are found innocent?  (This includes, for example, the costs of transporting over 30 witnesses they would call on their behalf from the UK to Texas to talk about what went on in London 5 years ago – further illustrating the insanity of the situation the three men are in.)
• If the men run out of funds whilst they are preparing for the trial, will the UK Government fund their additional costs as part of an overall guarantee that the three men will receive a fair trial?
• How can it be just that they will have to sell their family homes, leave their loved ones and lose their ability to work or provide for their family, when it is widely accepted that they could easily be tried here?
• Shouldn’t we as a society, always try to ensure that everyone is allowed within reason, to conduct the best defence that they can, and be treated in the fairest way possible?
• Why do we treat our citizens this way, when the Americans would never dream of extraditing their people to us in similar circumstances?  Why do we stand alone in Europe in subjugating the rights of British citizens to the whims of American justice?  With Guantanamo Bay, is this really the time to be Extraditing British people to America when they can more easily be dealt with here?
• Why, having embraced the concept of Natural Forum in the European Convention on Extradition, and in the European Convention on Human Rights, have we now ignored it in our new arrangements with the United States?
• Why have we signed such an unequal Treaty with our closest allies? 
• Why haven’t the Americans ratified this unequal Treaty? Will the US ever ratify this Treaty?  Is this the basis of a ‘special relationship’?
• Why can’t we encourage the Americans to make the one phone call needed to bring proceedings here?  Doesn’t the ‘special relationship’ allow us to deal with our own citizens where possible in our own country?  Assuming the US is confident in its case, isn’t it confident in the UK courts’ ability to deal with it? It only takes one call.
• Will the Home Secretary seriously take just 14 days to make a decision to Extradite these men (the guideline given for his decision to Extradite under the new 2003 Act)?  Surely the level of human and legal issues involved in this case requires the Home Secretary to complete more than an arbitrary review of this case? Surely British citizens should not be so arbitrarily dealt with by our own Government?
• If these men are extradited so readily, how many more UK citizens could be extradited to America without any prima facie evidence and on the basis for example, of no more than an email touching the US through the use a Cisco server?

Will you support friendsextradited in its clear and simple campaign to get these men investigated and tried in this country, and to introduce an amendment to the 2003 Act to incorporate the concept of Natural Forum?

The following letters may help you (in Microsoft "Word" format)
Letter 1	Letter 2
Letter 3	Letter 4

A simple way to send your letter is by clicking on the web-site below which will send your letter to your MP by fax automatically, and then check back in two weeks time to see if you had a response.
www.writetothem.com
 

Tell Someone