As someone trying to campaign on extradition and human rights issues, this sort of story is very, very frustrating, because it completely misses the point, and it is rather disappointing that Mike has fallen for it. Actually, it misses several points:

1 – This article is about deportation, which is completely different, both practically and legally, from extradition. Deportation is when a country kicks someone out because they don’t want them, extradition is when a country gives someone to another country because the second country does want them.

2 – Deportation is generally far less serious, so human rights factors are likely to be more significant. In an extradition case, the person is going somewhere to face trial for a sufficiently-serious crime. In deportation cases the person has usually done their time in prison, and in some cases, any conviction may well be spent. They are supposedly “safe”.

3 – Terrorists and paedophiles (and for the record, paedophilia isn’t actually illegal in the UK) have precisely the same protections as anyone else. It is a common criticism of European Human Rights law that is provides greater protection to “evil criminals” than ordinary citizens, but legally this is complete nonsense. What happens is that it is the “evil criminals” who are far more likely to suffer abuses or interferences of these rights, as these are the people states tend to want to do nasty things to. The only way we can guarantee that Human Rights actually apply to all of us is to ensure that they apply to everyone, including the worst elements of society.

4 – Even if she wanted to, Theresa May doesn’t have the legal power to block O’Dwyer’s extradition! Extradition (in the UK) is a legal process governed by a law. She can’t simply say “We’re not going to extradite him because we don’t feel like it”, she has a list of (5) very specific grounds on which she can block extradition. No more, no less. Human Rights issues are not one of them (although as a public authority she must act compatibly with the ECHR when making decisions). And surely this must be right? We don’t want ministers having huge discretion over a legal process, particularly given their political, rather than judicial background.

5 – O’Dwyer’s situation is pretty terrible and seemingly unjust… but it is a legal situation and has a legal solution; hence he is going before the High Court next week (iirc) to argue, on legal grounds, that he shouldn’t be extradited (on the basis of dual criminality and possibly human rights grounds). Hopefully he will win his appeal.

6 – Perhaps most importantly, this article isn’t about attacking extradition or deportation, this article is about attacking Human Rights (something the UK press hate, as they keep losing cases under the HRA). It is yet another in a long line of cheap shots taken by the UK newspapers against the fundamental freedoms that they seem to hate so much. Any individual who would like to maintain these rights should have nothing but contempt for this sort of biased, manipulative and self-serving journalism.

Right… that’s enough ranting from me, for now.