§ Mr. Peter Bruinvelsasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many countries do not allow extradition to the United Kingdom for political crimes; and if he will list them.
§ Mr. WhitneyAs a general rule, there is no provision for extradition to or from the United Kingdom for offences of a political character. The Extradition Act 1870 prohibits extradition from this country for these offences and our bilateral extradition treaties (listed in the reply given by my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor) on 20 December 1983, at column 134 all contain a reciprocal provision excluding such offences.
However, the "European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism 1977" (Cmnd. 7390) provides an important exception to this established principle. Under the terms of the convention certain offences are not regarded as political offences in relation to extradition between the contracting states. The following countries are parties to the convention:
- Austria
- Cyprus, Republic of
- Denmark
- Germany, Federal Republic of
- Iceland
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Norway
- Portugal
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Kingdom