EXTRADITION: An Introduction to UK-wide

Developments in International Police Co-operation

Having marked its 100th anniversary of facilitating international co-operation in the fight against organised crime last year, the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) continues into the future through a landscape of national borders seamlessly connected by technology.

Digitalisation of the global financial industry and acceleration of the use of new technologies has led to the proliferation of various new types of financial crime. The scale of the problem and its impact on the global economy is vast, with the amount of money laundered globally currently estimated at approximately 2–5% of global GDP.

As elaborated in INTERPOL’s Global Financial Fraud Assessment report published in May 2024, increased reliance on new technology is enabling organised criminal groups to target victims across the world through “more sophisticated and professional fraud campaigns without the need for advanced technical skills, and at relatively little cost”. Noting that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies are at the forefront of contemporary financial criminality, leading to “an epidemic in growth of financial fraud”, INTERPOL have identified:

• the need to dismantle safe havens;
• a greater emphasis on information sharing; and
• increased involvement of the private sectors as key focus areas to combat the situation.

While challenges lie ahead, this year has not been without its success stories. Operation Lionfish Hurricane, a global initiative led by INTERPOL targeting drug-trafficking networks across South America, Africa and Europe, which engaged 31 jurisdictions, has resulted in 206 arrests and the record-breaking seizure of 615 tonnes of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals worth an estimated USD1.6 billion – an amount higher than the GDP of certain countries – as well as arms, explosives, vehicles, aircraft and a semi-submersible vessel intended for trafficking across the Atlantic discovered in the jungles of Guyana.

Russia, China and Turkey remain in the spotlight for misusing INTERPOL’s red notice system. INTERPOL’s Secretary General Jurgen Stock, at the end of 2023, acknowledged that the organisation has limited capacity to prevent red notice misuse. Critics have called for a radical overhaul of the system given the potential for human rights abuses and the need to bolster the system’s credibility.

Russia, a well-recognised abuser of the system for political persecution and the limiting of freedom of speech, has reportedly indicated that it is considering withdrawing from INTERPOL. While perhaps representing a double-edged sword that would prevent further access to databases hosted by Russia, this would at least stem the flow of politically motivated red notices and free up resources as a result.

Such alleged abuses are not only limited to the usual suspects. Concerns surrounding Syria’s re-engagement with INTERPOL, after it had been suspended between 2012 and 2021 due to the repressive actions of the Assad regime, are also heightened following an alleged meeting between INTERPOL’s current president, Ahmed Naser Al-Raisi, some of whose skeletons were touched upon in last year’s overview, and Syria’s interior minister Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun, who is sanctioned in the EU, UK, USA and Canada for behaviour such as torture, the abduction of individuals and murder. Such allegations stand in contrast to INTERPOL’s expectations of integrity and support for human rights. Separately, Human Rights Watch has recently issued calls on countries to carefully review and scrutinise red notices issued by Rwanda.

INTERPOL’s links with the UAE continue to draw attention. The INTERPOL Foundation for a Safer World, established in 2013, with oversight over seven projects with a mission to engage governments and companies to support INTERPOL’s work, has been shut down. Controversy surrounded the foundation as it is understood that its funding came from the UAE.

Lobbying from the British government on behalf of Stephen Kavanagh, the UK’s candidate for the post of the next Secretary General, is underway, with Mr Kavanagh promising to “uphold and strengthen [INTERPOL’s]… commitment to efficiency, transparency and neutrality”.

Extradition

This year is likely to be the last that Assange features on any extradition roundup following the resolution of a process ongoing since August 2010 when Swedish prosecutors first issued an arrest warrant on two separate sexual assault allegations that were dropped in May 2017. As is well known, 18 US felony charges in connection with alleged leaks of classified information followed immediately thereafter.

In May 2024, the High Court issued a decision allowing Assange to bring a new appeal against extradition to the USA, where he was facing up to 175 years in prison.

On 19 June 2024, however, Assange signed a plea deal with the US Department of Justice, and on 24 June 2024, he was released from HMP Belmarsh on bail – as announced and facilitated by the Crown Prosecution Service – boarding a flight to the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, a US territory, to formalise the deal. Assange plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain classified information and was sentenced to time already served.

At present, it is understood that Assange is in Australia with his wife and two children.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal has ruled that Andrew Tate and his brother will be extradited to the UK to face allegations of rape and human trafficking upon the conclusion of their trial in Romania. Bedfordshire Police have confirmed that the force has obtained a European arrest warrant and is working with the authorities in Romania.

Following his extradition to the USA last year to face 15 charges of fraud and a possible prison sentence of 25 years, Mike Lynch was acquitted in June 2024, followed shortly thereafter by a tragedy that resulted in his death.

Mr Lynch used his first interview following his acquittal as a platform to, inter alia, criticise the disproportionate power balance in the extradition treaty between the UK and USA, stating that “It has to be wrong that a US prosecutor has more power over a British citizen living in England than the UK police do”.

Under the 2003 extradition treaty, which followed in the wake of 9/11, the USA does not have to provide prima facie evidence of guilt when bringing an extradition request. This is, however, not unusual in the UK’s extradition arrangements with other countries. Another concern is that more UK residents are extradited to the USA for trial than the numbers from the USA who come to the UK to face charges. However, this criticism may be somewhat dispelled by the difference in the level of enforcement activity between the two countries rather than any perceived imbalance in the extradition arrangements.

Criticism of US extradition arrangements is not, however, limited to the UK. Kim Dotcom, no stranger to extradition following his arrest in Thailand and extradition to Germany in 2002, is currently the subject of an extradition order to the USA, signed by New Zealand’s justice minister on 15 August 2024. He intends to appeal the decision on the basis that he would not receive a fair trial in the USA and has openly spoken about “the underlying political bias that led to the prosecution in the first place”.