Nat West Three should be tried here, say Tories
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Your support makes all the difference.A further 19 people could be extradited to America in the coming months if they lose their appeals, including the former Morgan Crucible boss Ian Norris, the computer hacker Gary McKinnon and the terrorist suspect Babar Ahmad.
The NatWest Three - David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby - are due to be extradited by 17 July to face fraud charges related to the collapse of Enron in Houston, Texas, and could be on a plane next Thursday. The campaign to stop their deportation has gathered force as 39 business leaders and politicians wrote an open letter to the Home Secretary urging him to intervene.
Their lobbying effort forced Tony Blair to pledge his help for the men to get bail to come back to Britain, though he refused to block the extradition. But the men's lawyer, Mark Spragg, said yesterday he had not got a reply from 10 Downing Street on whether the Government would put up money for a bail bond and give the US authorities guarantees that they would be safe to return to Britain.
Mr Grieve, who is Mr Norris's MP, wrote to Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General: "While the American criminal justice system strives for a fair outcome, there are aspects of its operation ranging from the shackling of defendants, difficulties with the obtaining of bail and conditions of detention which are very different from our own and more than merely procedural in nature. This makes it all the more important that British nationals should be tried in their own country wherever that is both appropriate and possible. I have seen nothing to suggest in this case that it could not be done."
Extradition cases
People to be extradited in the coming week:
NatWest 3 (David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew, Giles Darby) - wire fraud
Howard Welsh and Lee-Hope Thrasher - wire fraud and money laundering
Giles Carlyle-Clark - drug trafficking
Bryan Stepp - rape and sexual offences
David Port - forgery
A further 18 US extradition cases under the 2003 Act are before the UK courts:
Syed Abbas - fraud
Abu Hamza - terrorism (suspended by domestic proceedings)
Babar Ahmad - terrorism
Haroon Aswat - terrorism
Mario Azcarate - drugs
Jeremy Crook - fraud
Steve Edmondson - satellite signal theft
Graham Gill - racketeering
Syed Hashmi - terrorism
Douglas Havard - passport forgery/fraud
Tololupe John - drugs
Samuel McCaughey - child pornography
Gary McKinnon - computer fraud
Karen & Paul Maxwell-King - satellite signal theft
Ian Norris - fraud
Alan David Shephard - fraud
Beatrice and Stanley Tollman - fraud
David Tucker - drugs
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