Sir Menzies Campbell calls for McKinnon treaty to be scrapped
By Paul Christian, Chief ReporterThursday, September 20, 2012
12:00 PM
The party’s former leader concluded there should be a higher burden of proof before extradition took place, in the report commissioned by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Mr McKinnon’s mother Janis Sharp, who lives in Brookmans Park, welcomed the findings.
She told the WHT: “This new Extradition Treaty review from Menzies Campbell QC and the Lib Dems is hugely significant as it concurs with the conclusions of the extradition treaty reviews by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and by the Home Affairs Select Committee.
She added: “Our extradition treaty with the US is not equal and must be changed, as promised pre-election by both parties now in Government.”
Nick Clegg was pictured with Ms Sharp before the 2010 General Election in a campaign rally against the extradition treaty, which could see the 46-year-old taken to America, where he could face a jail term of 60 years.
He hacked into NASA and Pentagon computers looking for evidence of UFOs.
In his report QC Sir Menzies recommended tearing up and redrawing the existing treaty.
“To put the matter as simply as I can, one may have a ‘suspicion’ that someone has committed a crime, but that is a different and lower standard than being satisfied that it is ‘probable’ that a crime was committed by that person,” he said.
He added: “The proper course should be to raise the British standard to the American one, so that UK citizens do not suffer a disadvantage compared to their US equivalents.”
