Farid Hilali was extradited to Spain on February 8th 2008, after the House of Lords ruled that he may be sent under the terms of the European Arrest Warrant. This was in spite of a number of irregularities with the warrant, not least that it was reliant upon phone evidence that had previously been deemed inadmissible within the Spanish judicial system.

The British courts held that he may be extradited, but only on the basis of the charges against him. When Arani Solicitors contested that there was no case to answer, the House of Lords unfortunately ruled that it was a matter of ‘trust’ with the Spanish Government that he would only be tried on the charges to which he was extradited, and that it was not for the British Government to question the evidence before extradition.

Hours after arriving in Spain via military transport, the Spanish Government reneged on this promise and issue of trust. They have indicated that they will try him for being a member of a proscribed organisation, of which no mention was made in the European Arrest Warrant.

Indeed, the House of Lords explicitly stated in Paragraph 29 of their judgement that this would not be an extraditable offence under the specialty rule:-

“the Spanish prosecutor, Mr Rubira, states in several places in his witness statement that the respondent remains accused of participation in a terrorist organisation. It was important to make it plain in the extradition order that this was not an offence for which the respondent can be prosecuted as he is entitled to the protection of the specialty rule with regard to it”

The Spanish Government have therefore deliberately misled the British Courts in giving assurances that he would not be charged in relation to membership offences, then within hours of his extradition reneging on this assurance.

Farid Hilali is now at severe risk of torture and illegal detention in Madrid.Torture is widespread within Spain , and it has been criticised by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other human rights organisations. Just last month, the following by a prisoner was recorded:-

" “..They said that there, in Madrid , I would really find out what was what… That Guardia Civil told me that nobody knew I had been arrested and that he could easily shoot me. He said that their only remit was to torture and interrogate… In one day and a half they had made me do thousands of stand-ups. At the same time they would hit me on the sides and top of my head, with an object that could be a phone directory or a truncheon made out of rubber. When they hit me with that "phone directory", I saw sort of lights. They put a bag over my head and stuck something like tobacco smoke into it. They would close the bag to cause me to suffocate…”"

The above would appear to be from the most violent of third-world dictatorships, and certainly not from an EU member State which is a signatory to numerous human rights obligations yet continues to breach them. It is inconceivable that Britain could accept the extradition based upon ‘trust’ from a country which operates institutionalised torture, wrongful arrest and even its own prosecutor, Pedro Rubira commits perjury.

Please take action to demand that Farid is freed!