UK MEPs campaign to free British yachtsman extradited to Morocco

10.39.05am UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 30th Sep 2005

British yachtsman John Packwood has been extradited to Morocco to face charges of drug smuggling despite a cross-party campaign by Euro-MPs to free him.

Mr. Packwood - who has been held in a Spanish jail for almost a year- was extradited this week after a series of appeals in the Spanish courts and to the European Court of Human Rights. Spain has a treaty with Morocco which provides for the extradition of foreign nationals without so much as a cursory glance at the merits of the case, whereas it refuses to extradite Spanish nationals.

Local Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas urges EU authorities, even at this late stage, to act forcefully on Mr. Packwood's behalf:

"For almost a year we have been waiting for serious EU intervention in the case, to prevent Mr Packwood's extradition on charges which just aren't supported by the evidence.

I welcome the involvement more recently of Josep Borrel, the President of the European Parliament who happens to be Spanish, and it is astonishing that the Spanish government has paid no heed to his requests. Mr. Packwood is now languishing in prison in a country which is known to practise torture."

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, the Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman, said:

"The discriminatory nature of the treaty between Spain and Morocco, whereby Britons but not Spaniards will be extradited, is incompatible with the values of the European Union and the spirit of its laws, which ban discrimination on the basis of nationality.

The case against John Packwood could not be flimsier, yet he has been in detention already for over 10 months. Now he faces trial in a country that has never once acquitted a European on a drugs charge. We cannot have European citizens treated like this by a Member State bound by the European Convention on Human Rights."

Peter Skinner, Labour MEP for the South-East of England added:

"We must now hope that European Commissioner Frattini and the British Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, will now do all they can to ensure that procedures of justice are followed to the highest standard."

Dr Lucas stressed the implications of Mr Packwood's case for the South-East's yachting industry:

This extradition isn't just a huge personal miscarriage of justice - it has serious implications for the future of the hundreds employed in the yacht delivery business.

If crews are at risk of arrest in connection with events months after their deliveries and in spite of 'clean' searches at the time of delivery, then no crew delivering a vessel or any cargo outside the EU is safe.

The EU has failed hopelessly to protect Mr. Packwood - and the small yacht delivery sector which is so important to the South of England's economy."

The cross party group of MEPs, including Sarah Ludford (Lib Dem), Caroline Lucas (Green) and Peter Skinner (Labour) will continue to campaign for Mr. Packwood, and will write jointly to the Moroccan ambassador to the EU and European Justice Commissioner Frattini on his behalf.

Note to Editors:

Mr Packwood and three others - Henry Stableford, Oliver Bennet and Colin Bocquillon, all of the Isle of Wight - were delivering a privately-owned boat from Southampton to Morocco in1997 when engine failure and storms forced them to land at the holiday resort of Agadir in northern Morocco. The boat was searched - and given a clean bill of health, the men paid for their skippering services, and sent home on flights to the UK.

A full ten weeks later, a further search of the vessel revealed several tonnes of cocaine had been stashed on board. Interpol investigated the crew but took no further action at the time. Later, however, international arrest warrants were issued for the four men. The first the yachtsmen knew of the warrants was last November - more than seven years later - when Mr Packwood was arrested in Malaga.

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