Cleveland Police: Corruption Extradition

No UK trial to establish evidence of supplying global crystal-meth labs By Billy Briggs.

A SCOTS couple who have four children face the possibility of prison and extradition to America next month despite having not stood trial in a court for the crime of which they are accused.

In a case that highlights the controversial impact on British justice of the post-9/11 extradition treaty signed between the UK and the US, Brian and Kerry Howes of Bo’ness, West Lothian, are facing extradition to America on allegations of supplying chemicals over the internet in a conspiracy to produce crystal meth.

The couple, who deny the charges, face a preliminary extradition hearing at the high court in Edinburgh on January 14. They fear they will be remanded in custody and their four children will go into care ahead of their removal to America.

Under the terms of the treaty, the US can apply to have someone extradited without any trial taking place in the UK. On signing the Extradition Act 2003, the then home secretary, David Blunkett, removed the obligation on US law enforcement agencies to present British courts with prima facie evidence of criminality. Thanks to the Royal Prerogative, the treaty became law without parliamentary debate, which means that the US must only provide “written information” relating to an alleged wrongdoing.

Crystal meth – a form of amphetamine that has been crystallised so that it can be smoked – is a highly dangerous and addictive drug that has pervaded the poorer sections of American society for the past 20 years. Pseudoephedrine, iodine and red phosphorus are the three main chemicals required to make the drug, which produces a high that may last 12 hours or more.

Brian Howes – an amateur pyrotechnician who sold chemicals in the UK legally – denies that he and his wife broke the law by selling iodine and red phosphorus through their internet business. But federal prosecutors at the Drug Enforcement Agency in Arizona allege they were part of a drugs racket supplying a global network of meth labs in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

Howes said their children will have to go into care if they are remanded in custody and that his wife, Kerry, is 23 weeks pregnant and faces giving birth to their fifth child on a chain gang in Arizona. “We just want a fair trial in the UK but that is not going to happen as the extradition treaty replaces the word evidence’ with information’ – and information is accepted as true, that is the wording of the act. We have no faith in these proceedings as the files from our previous solicitors have not arrived with our current solicitors after three months, so no defence has been able to be mounted.

“In England, people are bailed right up to the House of Lords and then the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but we will be remanded during or after the high court hearing in Edinburgh. We need help with a fund to fight in the ECHR and then we may have a chance of bail. The Scottish legal aid system does not pay for this – in England it is even afforded to people who have confessed to a crime.”

While a passionate debate raged across Britain about the 42-day limit for terror suspects, Brian, 44, and, Kerry-Ann, 30, previously spent 214 days on remand in prison, a detention that lasted five times longer than the proposed terror suspect threshold passed by the House of Commons in June but recently rejected by the House of Lords.

People can be held on remand indefinitely under the extradition treaty.

Extradition to Cyprus By Brian Howes

Audrey Phillips was shot in the head – yet accused of murdering her husband

Jan 15 2008

EXCLUSIVE by Ian Hernon, Liverpool Echo

A MERSEYSIDE woman today (Tuesday) told of her ordeal after being shot in the head, then accused of her murdering her husband who died in the same incident. Audrey Phillips spent most of last year awaiting trial in a US state penitentiary after being extradited from Britain.

Britain’s unfair treaty by Chris Williams

Britain’s unfair treaty

Chris Williams 

PLEASE SIGN THE HOWES FAMILY PETITION BY CLICKING THE PHOTO BELOW.

Observations on extradition

It now seems very likely that Gary McKinnon, the north London UFO enthusiast and conspiracy theorist, will be extradited to the United States to face charges that he hacked into Nasa and military computers. The Law Lords ruled on 30 July that earlier American attempts to press a plea bargain from their suspect had been legal, leaving his defence team with no further recourse to the UK courts.

Lawyers are preparing a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on the grounds that their client’s curiosity and mischief could attract a disproportionate punishment. Few commentators rate their chances of success highly, however, after the Law Lords argued in their judgment that McKinnon would face a similar fate if tried in the UK.

The McKinnon saga has served to highlight again the troubling impact on justice of the post-9/11 extradition treaty between the UK and the United States. Signed in March 2003 by the then home secretary, David Blunkett, it removed the obligation on US law enforcement to present UK courts with prima facie evidence of criminality. Blunkett said at the time: “This new treaty will mean much closer co-operation and cut out much of the paperwork which has led to unnecessary delays in the current system and allowed criminals to exploit loopholes and deliberately thwart justice.”

The treaty quickly became law without parliamentary debate, thanks to the Royal Prerogative. The “paperwork” – or evidence – formerly required to initiate extradition proceedings to the US is now replaced with a call for “written information” relating to alleged wrongdoing. That information is, in effect, assumed to be true fact.

Brian Howes, 44, and his wife, Kerry-Ann, 30, spent 214 days without charge in Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison last year as a result of that assumption. Their detention lasted more than five times longer than the hotly disputed 42-day limit for terror suspects that squeaked through the Commons in June. Federal prosecutors at the Drug Enforcement Agency in Arizona are aiming to secure their extradition for allegedly supplying chemicals to crystal meth labs. The highly addictive home-made drug has ravaged poor communities across the United States in the past two decades.

The couple, from Bo’ness near Falkirk, were eventually released on bail to care for their four children after Brian Howes spent 30 days on hunger strike. They are now just weeks away from a final high court appeal that could see them packed off to the notorious federal penitentiaries of the Arizona Desert to await trial. Their last hope in the UK is to overturn the June decision by the Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill to approve their extradition. A conviction for unlawful importation of regulated chemicals carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. The Howeses both face several indictments.

While Gary McKinnon freely admits he hacked US government systems, the Howeses strongly deny they broke the law by selling iodine and red phosphorus. Both have myriad innocent uses and are perfectly legal in the UK, but are strictly controlled by the US administration as part of its international crusade against drugs. Unusually, the investigation was sparked when suspicious Cleveland police contacted US counterparts during a separate, aborted firearms investigation.

Iodine and red phosphorus were two of about 60 substances the Howeses’ business offered for sale on the web, but it is alleged they supplied iodine and red phosphorus knowing that the chemicals would be used to make crystal meth. The couple vehemently dispute that claim, insisting red phosphorus is often bought by amateur pyrotechnics devotees and that the iodine they supplied was clearly marked for medical use. But because of the transatlantic extradition deal, no UK court will ever hear those arguments.

The Howeses have been broken by the battle. A month without food caused lasting damage to Brian Howes’s speech and memory; Kerry-Ann has been diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Howes fears conditions in Arizona’s jails, combined with a lengthy wait for the case to be heard, could prove devastating and has several times attempted to strike a plea bargain deal in exchange for his wife’s freedom. Prosecutors have rejected his approaches.

This leaves the Howeses’ inexperienced and under-resourced legal team reduced to battling Washington on points of law. If they are extradited to Arizona, the couple could face a three-year wait for a judge to hear the arguments of their public defender, who has been denied access to important documents detailing the investigation.

Our extradition treaty with Washington is not reciprocal. United States citizens suspected of crimes by UK law enforcement have not lost their right to challenge the evidence presented against them in a home court. The US constitution’s “probable cause” provision meant that not even John Ashcroft, the bête noire of civil liberties advocates, who as attorney general signed the treaty on behalf of the Bush administration, could have torn down this safeguard.

Meanwhile, at the thin end of the deal, the UK authorities must show American courts “such information as would provide a reasonable basis to believe that the person sought committed the offence” – that is, evidence.

Lords to rule on hacker Gary McKinnon’s extradition

Lords to rule on hacker Gary McKinnon’s extradition

Author:

Ian Grant

Posted:

17:07 13 Jun 2008

The US government accuses McKinnon of breaking into the
computer network at the Earle Naval Weapons Station, stealing computer
passwords, and shutting down the network in the immediate aftermath of
the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A second indictment charges McKinnon with intentional damage to a
protected computer, with intrusions into 92 computer systems belonging
to the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of Defense and NASA.

McKinnon is also charged with hacking into two computers located at
the Pentagon and six private companies’ networks. He is accused of
causing approximately £450,000 in damages to computers located in 14
states.

“As a result of the intrusions into the US military networks,
McKinnon rendered the network for the military district of Washington
inoperable,” a US Attorney statementsaid.

McKinnon admits entering US computer systems without authorisation, but denies causing damage or non-operation of any of them.

If convicted, McKinnon could face 60 years in a US jail.

Members of the former National High Tech Crime Unit arrested
McKinnon in 2002, three years after he began looking for evidence of
extra-terrestrial beings and technologies on US computers, McKinnon
told Computer Weekly.

British taxpayers will pay both the CPS’s costs and much of McKinnon’s. The total so far is estimated to be close to £900,000.

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