David Cameron Seeks Extradition Agreement With Barack Obama
David Cameron is to press Washington to allow greater numbers of British citizens facing charges in the US to be tried in Britain rather than face extradition to the US under a contentious treaty.
British and US officials are to examine the implementation of the extradition treaty, introduced in the aftermath of 9/11, amid criticisms that it is weighted against British citizens.
The team will be appointed after the prime minister raised the extradition treaty with Barack Obama during their talks at the White House on Wednesday.
Cameron said: “I raised this issue with President Obama today. We had a good discussion. We will be following this up with further talks between our teams. We have carried out an independent review of the treaty which found that it was balanced. But I recognise there are concerns about how it is implemented in practice and that is what our teams will look at.”
The prime minister raised the matter with Obama after an intensification of criticisms of the treaty in the wake of the extradition of Christopher Tappin, a retired Kent businessman, to the US.
It also follows a decision on Tuesday by the home secretary Theresa May to sign an extradition order to send the TVShack website founder, Richard O’Dwyer, to the US to stand trial for alleged copyright offences. O’Dwyer, 23, set up the website, which the American authorities claim hosted links to pirated copyrighted films and television programmes.