James Stansfeld and Emma Foubister, instructed by Russell Nicholson of Taylor Rose MW Solicitors, successfully represented the three Requested Persons whose extradition was sought by Greece to serve five year sentences of imprisonment for offences relating to the exportation of pharmaceutical medication through Greece into Turkey.
The three men were involved in humanitarian aid convoys from the UK to Syria as part of a charity and were stopped at the Greek border with Turkey. DJ Rimmer accepted that they were involved in a genuine philanthropic mission and found that it was difficult to conceive of a more technical offence and a less meritorious prosecution or justification for extradition and there was no evidence of commercial drug trafficking.
Extradition was successfully resisted on the basis that the arrest warrants did not seek extradition for extradition offences, extradition was a disproportionate interference with their Article 8 ECHR rights and oppressive by reason of the passage of time.
The court also accepted the defence arguments about Article 3 prison conditions in Greece and, in particular, that the High Court decision in Sula v Greece could be distinguished, observing that at the very least a detailed Aranyosi request would be needed inter alia about conditions in Thessaloniki Prison.