European Parliament supports strengthened rights for suspects abroad

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 15th Apr 2005

The European Parliament has endorsed an EU law giving better safeguards for suspects and defendants in criminal proceedings across the EU, including being given a 'Letter of Rights', access to legal advice and legal aid, and provision of professional interpretation.

Baroness Sarah Ludford, London MEP and European justice spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats said:

"These measures would have made a real difference for the British plane spotters accused as spies in Greece 3 years ago, in particular the 'letter of rights' in English and decent interpretation throughout. It is denial of justice if defendants cannot follow the proceedings."

"At their appeal hearing in Kalamata which I attended, all 12 of them had to huddle round one single interpreter, who was not a qualified court interpreter, had to try and give a running commentary, and whom they had to pay for themselves."

When the European Parliament in 2002 approved the European Arrest Warrant which makes extradition to another EU state easier, MEPs insisted there should also be action to ensure that defence rights guaranteed by the European Human Rights Convention (ECHR) must spelled out in detail and honoured in practice.

"We now have to put pressure on EU governments to adopt this law without watering it down so much as to be meaningless. Some of them are complaining about cost or having to change their systems. But since they are all ECHR signatories, they should be doing all these things already to ensure legal fairness."