Germany refuses extradition of Albanian drug trafficker over concerns about prisons' conditions in UK

A high court in Germany has refused to extradite an Albanian “drug trafficker” to the UK because of concerns about the conditions of UK prisons.

A lawyer who represented the Albanian man in court, Jan-Carl Janssen, told Germany's professional judicial journal Legal Tribune Online (LTO) on Tuesday that the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court in south-west Germany made its decision earlier this year, but it has only recently been made public.

“The court decided that the extradition of the Albanian to Britain was ‘currently inadmissible’. Without British guarantees, extradition is not possible in view of the state of the British prison system. There are no legal remedies against this,” a translation of the German court report said.

The Albanian man in the case had lived in the UK and was accused of drug trafficking and money laundering by British officials. However, he had come to Germany to visit his fiancée who lived there and was seriously ill. Upon arrival, German police arrested him based on a red notice from Interpol and he ended up in extradition custody.

Janssen opposed his client’s extradition on the grounds that the conditions in the UK prisons did not comply with minimum standards under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Britain’s prisons were subject to chronic overcrowding, staff shortages, and violence among inmates.

Some of the prisons in His Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS) have been in use since the Victorian era in the 19th century and the rat-infested cells are partially too small, too dark, and badly ventilated, Janssen wrote to court.

In response, the German court demanded safety guarantees from the British side that minimum standards would be met in accordance with the ECHR.

The British side was also asked to inform the German court in which prison the Albanian was due to be detained and what his conditions of detention would be like at the prison.

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British authorities initially replied to the court's request. However, they refused to respond to further inquiries from the same German court which had not been convinced about the inmate’s safety.

The Albanian man is not wanted for offences committed in Germany and eventually, after the expiration of the second deadline the German court decided that as it did not receive the assurances it asked for from the UK authorities, the man would not be extradited. He is currently free again.

The decision not to extradite the drug trafficker to the UK has been described as a “severe rebuke” and “an embarrassment for the UK” by a member of the Law Society.

“This is an embarrassment for the UK. There have been similar court decisions before under the European arrest warrant framework, but in relation to member states whose records on prisons and human rights the UK would not wish to compare itself with,” said Jonathan Goldsmith, a Law Society member.

In the meantime, the cash-strapped Conservative government in Britain claims to be spending more than what is needed to provide safe and secure prison facilities in the country.

A spokeswoman for the UK Justice Ministry told the Guardian newspaper, "This government is doing more than ever before to provide safe and secure prisons that rehabilitate offenders, reduce crime, and protect the public."

"We are continuing to drive forward the delivery of 20,000 additional modern prison places and our £100 million ($126 million) investment in tough security measures," she added.

Last year, the Independent newspaper reported about inmates kept in a “crumbling, overcrowded, vermin-infested prison” in south London, telling judiciary inspectors that they had been forced to go for days – and sometimes weeks – without time in the open air.

One group of prisoners at HM Prison Wandsworth were described as walking “blinking into the sunlight” after spending more than a week indoors, officials found during an unannounced inspection in September.

The experience appears widespread in the Victorian-era prison – with nearly three-quarters of inmates surveyed during the inspection saying they had been locked in their cells for more than 22 hours on weekdays in the run-up to the inspectors’ visit, rising to 91 percent during weekends.

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