The issue of bringing criminals to justice is a topic that raises passion. We see, all too often, odd outcomes of trials and peculiar sentences. But the area of justice that gets people upset the most is that of foreign criminals languishing in our prisons at our expense, whilst people who are victims of crimes in the UK seeing those who committed crimes against them enjoying the sun and freedom in other countries.
Of course, if someone commits a crime in this country, irrespective of where they come from, it is right that they are punished here in Britain. After all, it may be the case that they can go to their home countries where the local authorities have a different, more lenient view on that crime.
But if there is a criminal who commits a crime here in the UK and then flees back to their home country, it is surely right that we do everything we can to bring that person back to justice. It is because of this that we have extradition treaties with many countries around the world. The only places where we have problems is where the punishments of crimes will be more severe than we would inflict in the UK, such as the death penalty. But in all other cases, we try to have reciprocal arrangements for the extradition of criminals. Except, that is, in Europe.
For reasons too complex to analyse in the few words afforded me in this column, when a perfectly reasonable policy has the word “Europe” attached to it, it becomes something to be mistrusted. So it is with the European Arrest Warrant.
I do have some reservations that a UK citizen may find themselves caught up in a complex and lengthy legal process in a distant part of Europe, having been extradited for some minor infringement whilst on holiday. However, I also feel strongly that where we have perpetrators of crimes in the UK who hide in another part of Europe as a result of our being unable to arrest them and bring them to justice, we need a mechanism to bring those people back to the UK to face justice for the crimes they have committed.
There are proposals to opt back into the European arrest warrant coming before parliament. If it means we can bring some vile, unpleasant people to proper justice, I will support it.