Too much and too little justice?

Slobodanka Jovanovska is researching extradition law in the Balkans and the EU

Preparing for my trip to London, where I will interview the solicitor representing Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he fights extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations, I had the feeling I am working on two stories that did not seem linked in any way.

However, I have learned that while in the Balkans the extradition issue is entirely concerned with how to stop criminals evading justice through the use of double citizenship, the issue within the EU is rather different.

In the union, it seems that the issue is protecting citizens from what some claim to be an over-zealous use of the European Arrest Warrant, EAW, for petty crimes, such as stealing a bicycle even.

While the Assange case demonstrates there really seems to be no place to hide in Europe, it is totally opposite to what is happening in the successor states to the former Yugoslavia, who have just began negotiations on creating a regional arrest warrant in the image of the EAW.

According to the Serbian ambassador to Macedonia, Tomislav Djurin, the criminals in the region stayed connected and enjoy freedom of movement as if Yugoslavia never broke up, and this makes the creation of a Balkan arrest warrant a priority now.

“We have to declare total war on the mafia,” he told me, while explaining that this aggressive stance in Serbia and in other parts of the region has provoked revenge attacks, as many will remember happened before in Italy when it took on its mafia.

“The public prosecutors are the target, and in Serbia they are put on the list of protected people by the state. We also transport them with the protected armoured cars,” he says, adding that the killing of three public prosecutors in Slovenia during recent years demonstrates just how rattled the Balkan mafia is.

Apparently, what’s really got the criminal classes going is the state’s newly-granted powers to confiscate property and material goods if it can be proven that they were obtained with money earned from criminal activities.

This is happening right now in Balkan countries. What about in the EU?

I am preparing to travel to London where I will attend a conference on extradition and deportation organised by Justice – the UK campaign group working to further access to justice and the rule of law.

One of the main focuses of the conference is the EAW, its flaws and how many believe it is widely misused among some EU-member states. I suspect there will be many lessons for Balkan states on how to avoid some of the problems the EAW currently poses.

Fair Trials International, FTI, a UK-based NGO that works to ensure fair trials, according to international, recognised standards for those charged in a country other than their home state, has been campaigning for the reform of the EAW for some time.

FTI claims that there are numerous problems with the EAW, including disproportionate use and improper use with regard to mistaken identity, among other issues, despite the fact that around 4,000 people were extradited across the EU during 2009, courtesy of the EAW.

The organisation cites the case of Edmond Arapi, who was tried and convicted in absentia of the killing of Marcello Miguel Espana Castillo in Genoa, Italy in October 2004. Arapi was given a 19-year sentence that was reduced to 16 years on appeal.

However, according to FTI, Arapi could not have killed Castillo as he had not left the UK at all between the years 2000 and 2006. He was arrested in 2009 after returning to England following a family holiday in Albania. Eventually, the Italian authorities were persuaded to drop the EAW after they admitted seeking Arapi’s extradition in error.

Read more on the Fair Trials International website

And here we come back to the Assange case. Assange strongly denies the allegations against him, and his lawyers are fighting his extradition on the grounds that the charges against him are not extraditable offences.

His lawyer, Mark Stephens at London firm Finers Stephens Innocent, took the unusual step of publishing case papers – including their defence arguments – on the internet.

They say that the EAW should not have been used in this case for a variety of reasons, including that it was issued to forcibly bring Assange to Sweden “for questioning, without any fixed intention at the time of its issue to charge or arrest of prosecute him”.

Find out more about the arguments at the Finers Stephens Innocent website

As for Assange, he has suggested the allegations made against him are politically motivated after Wikileaks published a series of sensitive material – including leaked US diplomatic cables.

Documents have been recently released by Wikileaks about Macedonia – just one day before the country’s general election.  

The papers revealed that the leader of the main Albanian party in Macedonia – the DUI – would prefer to form a coalition government with the opposition party. The documents also suggest that the US consider the ruling VMRO-DPMNE to be operating in a climate of fear and using the judiciary to control critics and opponents.

Click here to read more on the Balkanleaks web page

Assange’s two-day appeal hearing against his extradition begins on July 12 – I’ll keep you posted on what his lawyer tells me.

Slobadanka Jovanovska is a Skopje-based journalist who is participating in the2011 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

She will be writing regular updates on her investigation into extradition agreements in the Balkans and in European Union member states.