(Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): Mr Deputy Speaker, while Members
make their way out of the Chamber, I will take this opportunity to
congratulate you on being the man who effectively announced our
departure from the European Union. Your place in history is
assured.
Since we agreed the UK-US extradition treaty in 2003, it has been
abundantly clear that the British Government of the day struck a
truly dreadful deal—asymmetric, sometimes ineffective and often
unfair on British citizens. Countless examples down the years
have shown that, from the NatWest three to Christopher Tappin,
from Gary McKinnon to Anne Sacoolas, the person charged with
causing the death by dangerous driving of Harry Dunn. We now risk
yet another serious miscarriage of justice with the US
extradition request for Dr Mike Lynch, a successful and
entrepreneurial British businessmen. Dr Lynch founded an
innovative data processing company called Autonomy, which by 2010
was Britain’s largest leading software company. In 2011 it was
sold to Hewlett-Packard for £9 billion.
Several years later, Hewlett-Packard claimed
that Autonomy was overvalued. Hewlett-Packard
sued Dr Lynch for fraud in the United Kingdom. After a lengthy
and costly civil trial, Dr Lynch is now awaiting judgment, and I
am of course prevented from commenting further on that case due
to the sub judice rules, although this is a trial by judge alone,
not by jury, so the possibility of undue influence is near zero.
Dr Lynch is now facing almost identical criminal charges in the
United States, in yet another aggressive attempt by American
authorities to exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction. Despite
the Serious Fraud Office deciding that there is no basis for a
prosecution in the United Kingdom, the United States authorities
are doggedly pursuing his extradition.
Civil cases in this country and the States are decided on the
balance of probabilities, a much lower hurdle than for criminal
cases, which have to be decided on a “beyond reasonable doubt”
basis. If Hewlett-Packard fails to win its civil
case against Dr Lynch here in the UK based on that much lower
standard of proof than the criminal test, it is inconceivable
that the authorities will win a near identical criminal case if
it is tried fairly. Accordingly, the case for extradition would
evaporate, so the only sensible course of action available to the
UK authorities—in this case, the Home Secretary—is to delay the
extradition until the United Kingdom judge has made his
decision...
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