Why the Assange case is important.......

 Assange has now got leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against his extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual offences.

So why is this of exceptional importance to all Brits, and not merely as a running news story?

At the outset, let me make it clear that the appeal process has got nothing to do with the merits of the case, guilt or innocence. For the court to consider the case there must be an important matter of law at issue.

That matter is whether a European Arrest Warrant can be issued by a State Prosecutor or only by the court seeking the extradition. If it rules the latter the case against Assange falls to the ground, because the EAW was issued by the Swedish prosecutor. If the former it puts us all at hazard.

The essence of the EAW, which makes it so vile, is that the country seeking extradition does not have to produce prima facie evidence that any crime has been committed. Any jurisdiction can issue an EAW against any citizen of any EU member state and  it is duly executed. Naturally this includes states such as Bulgaria and Romania that are a by-word for corruption in the legal system. The power itself is bad enough. The fact that it can be exercised sitting in an office in Athens or wherever is seriously worrying.

There have been horrendous examples of miscarriages of justice arising from EAWs, one of the worst being the young student from London who was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter at a Greek night club after an altercation. The prosecution could not even produce evidence that he was at the scene of the crime. It was thrown out in the lower court.

But unbeknownst to the accused, the prosecutor appealed against the verdict and won, although the accused was not even notified of the appeal proceedings. He was duly arrested on an EAW and taken back to Greece. He was imprisoned for over a year whilst the prosecution got around to preparing the case. He was then held on bail in Greece for another 2 years. The Greeks then dropped the case. By this time of course, all his fellow students had graduated and he was back at square 1.

So how does this affect all you out there in cyberland?

My T is a free-speech site. We can express any view however extreme (and many do, every day) subject to the normal rules of legality and decency.

One of you supporters of Islam decides to blog that the holocaust never took place. This is picked up in Austria and the next thing you know is that the Old Bill is knocking on your door a 6 a.m. bearing an EAW from the State Prosecutor in Vienna and then you are on the next flight in handcuffs charged with holocaust denial.

But, you protest, I have never been to Austria. Tough luck; that is irrelevant.

But I haven’t committed any crime in English law! Hard cheddar, matey; so is that.

But I’m not a citizen of a European country! So what?

One disgraceful case involved an Australian academic who was en route from the US to Australia when he was arrested on an Austrian EAW at Heathrow Airport whilst in transit, for holocaust denial. Fortunately the Appeal Court exercised a bit of common sense for a change and he was released, but only after a lengthy and deeply unpleasant (and expensive) experience.

After a year or so in the slammer, your case comes to trial and you get a prison sentence. If you are lucky, the sentence is no more than your detention so you can go home with your grasp of the German language much improved.

So if Assange wins, the prosecutors are knocked out of the loop. Why is this so important? Because the vast majority of EAWs are issued by them, not as result of a court ruling, and they are also responsible for almost all of the trivial cases such as refusing to pay a restaurant bill.

It will not be a total solution. That will only come when Cameron gets us out of the EAW.

Don’t hold your breath.