§ 13. Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek amendment to the rules on international extradition regulations, with a view to clarifying the legal position of Libyans suspected of the Lockerbie bombing.
Mr. Kenneth ClarkThe legal position is not in doubt. By its resolution 748, the Security Council of the United Nations decided that the Libyan Government must surrender the accused for trial, either in Scotland or in the United States. Under the United Nations charter this obligation prevails over any other obligation which Libya might have under any other international agreement.
§ Mr. KaufmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy not to extradite persons to India who would be liable to capital punishment there.
§ Mr. JackIt is already Government policy in all cases in which an extradited person might be subject to capital punishment to obtain a satisfactory and acceptable guarantee from the requesting state that the death penalty will not be imposed or carried out. That policy is underpinned by provisions in both the Extradition Act 1989 and the new extradition treaty with India.