R (Government of the United States of America) v Bow Street Magistrates Court
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 06 September 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | [2006] EWHC 2256 (Admin) |
| Date | 06 September 2006 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISIONAL COURT
Before Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Cresswell
THE RULES governing disclosure in a civil action or a criminal trial could not be applied to an extradition hearing.
If a judge had reason to believe that an abuse of process might have occurred in extradition proceedings, he should call upon the requesting authority or state to provide the necessary information or evidence for determining that issue.
If fairness required that that material should be disclosed, but the requesting authority or state would not agree to such a course, the judge should hold that fair process was impossible and discharge the person whose extradition was sought.
The judge should be alert to the possibility of an abuse of process allegation being made as a delaying tactic and he should investigate such an allegation only if there was reason to believe that an abuse might have taken place.
The statutory time limits governing extradition procedures should be complied with and extensions of time granted only in exceptional circumstances.
The Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division so held in a reserved judgment:
(i) quashing the decision of District Judge Workman at Bow Street Magistrates Court on December 6, 2005, ordering the Government of the United States of America to disclose certain documents for the purposes of an application by Stanley and Beatrice Tollman for a ruling that their extradition to the United States under the Extradition Act 2003 would be an abuse of process; (ii) quashing the decision of District Judge Evans at Bow Street on April 21, 2006, ordering the Central Examining Court, Criminal Court of the National Court, Madrid, to disclose relevant documents for the purposes of an application by Harvinderjeet Singh Sander, Malkit Singh, John Anthony Rowe, Kuldip Singh Sander, Terence Peter Wilcock, Ian Hendry and Shakil Nisar, for a ruling that their extradition to Spain under the 2003 Act would be an abuse of process.
Mr Alun Jones, QC, and Mr Peter Caldwell for the United States Government and the Madrid court; Mr Clive Nicholls, QC, and Mr Hugo Keith for Mr Tollman; Mr James Lewis, QC, and Mr James Hines for Mrs Tollman; Mr James Lewis, QC, and Mr Ben Watson...
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