Thursday, January 26, 2006

Czechs bouncing back and forth

The Czech Ministry of Justice has sent a draft amendment of the law that implements the European Arrest Warrant to the Chamber of Deputies, where a vigorous debate is expected.

The problem at the moment is that the law applies only to crimes committed since November 1, 2004 and this has meant that other countries have refused to extradite wanted people (for criminal rather than terrorist activity) to the Czech Republic.

As the Prague Daily Monitor explains:

“The countries that refuse to extradite suspected Czechs include Britain, Cyprus, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.

The Justice Ministry said the main problem is with Ireland because it is not possible to reach the extradition of some members of the Berdych gang.

The gang, that includes former elite policemen, is suspected of murders of rich businesspeople, robberies and kidnappings in 2000-01.”

Some Deputies maintain that they had not been warned by the Justice Ministry that this would be the effect of the restriciton; others insist that the law was passed only because the retroactive restriction had been imposed.

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