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When Deborah Dark took her daughter and one-year-old twin grandsons to Spain to see her father, she looked forward to long, lazy days at his poolside villa.
The fortnight duly flew by in a fabulous blur of family bonding but as she prepared to return to her home in Ham, south-west London, and £36,000-a-year job as personal secretary to a foreign diplomat, her life was about to change dramatically.
At Alicante airport, Deborah was pulled aside and taken to a room where a translator held up a European Arrest Warrant and told her: “I have some very bad news for you. You are to be extradited to France to serve a six-year prison sentence for a cannabis offence 20 years ago.”
Unaware of her status as a wanted woman, Deborah collapsed on the floor, protesting her innocence, shaking and sobbing hysterically. It was September 2008 and the beginning of a nightmarish chain of events that would see the 45-year-old handcuffed, strip-searched and imprisoned for one month in Spain's notorious maximum-security prison, Madrid V, alongside terrorists from al Qaeda and ETA, murderers and rapists. She would be physically attacked by fellow inmates and sink so low that she would be placed on “suicide watch”.
But even after a Spanish judge refused to grant the extradition order and released her on grounds of “passage of time”, she remains a fugitive from French justice, unable — because of the draconian powers of European Arrest Warrants — to leave the UK without facing the allegations all over again.
As we shall see, getting this warrant overturned is a fiendishly complex process, one that will require politicians, such as Justice Secretary Jack Straw and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, to vigorously push for a change in the European extradition system.
Today, as Dark sits in her kitchen and describes her ongoing ordeal, she is overcome by racking sobs. “It's crazy,” she says, trying to pull herself together. “It's like I'm living in this weird Kafkaesque world where I'm stuck in limbo and nobody can help me. I've lost my job, and until this misuse of the arrest warrant is addressed, I'm totally unemployable and a prisoner in my own country.
“Sometimes it gets so bad I feel I cannot carry on. And then I think, no, my daughter needs me, my grandsons need me. But I get terrible flashbacks. I can be driving along and suddenly I'm back in that depraved prison in Spain where my cell mate greeted me by throwing her dinner of rice and pig-fat over my head. I lived in constant fear of my life there: I saw a heavily pregnant prisoner have her stomach kicked in until the baby inside her was dead, and another inmate's head smashed to a pulp against a windowsill.
The fear of being sent back is making me demented. I'm absolutely broken, to be honest. I must have aged 10 years in the last 10 months.”
The alleged offence for which Deborah is still being pursued dates back to 1988 when she was 24 and driving home from a holiday in Marbella, Spain, with her eight-year-old daughter Claire. At the French border, customs searched their rental car and found 21 kilograms of cannabis stashed under the floor and in the sunroof.
Deborah told the police she was unaware of the drugs and suspected that her boyfriend of nine months — who had flown back from Marbella at the last moment, telling her he had to visit his “sick dad” — was responsible.
Unbeknown to her, her boyfriend was a suspected drug dealer with a criminal record under the surveillance of British police. A French court believed Deborah's account and acquitted her but only after she had endured eight months on remand in Pau prison in south-west France. Hundreds of miles from home and with no friends or family to look after her, Claire was put in a French orphanage by the authorities.
“Never in a million years did I think I would end up spending time in a prison. I had never been in trouble with the police before and was not the sort to cope in that environment,” she insists. “I was naïve to become involved with a boyfriend prepared to set me up in that way but I was absolutely innocent of the drugs charge.”
Deborah, privately educated at a boarding school in Surrey, was determined to put the torment behind her and rebuild her life. But bizarrely neither she nor her lawyer was informed that after her acquittal the French prosecution had successful appealed and Deborah had been sentenced to six years in prison, in absentia.
Nevertheless, for the next 15 years, Deborah travelled undisturbed to France, to ski at Courchevel on half a dozen occasions, blissfully unaware of her status as a wanted convict.
And so it might have continued but for the creation of the European Arrest Warrant, enacted in 2003, to enable the fast-track extradition of terrorist suspects. This changed everything. In 2005 a public prosecutor in Pau applied for and was granted a European Arrest Warrant against her.
The first time Deborah had an inkling something was amiss was when she travelled to Turkey in 2007. “I was detained, handcuffed, stripped and held for a few hours before they let me go on my way,” she recalls. “When I asked why I'd been held, all they could say was: Speak to Interpol, you have problem with Interpol.'
“I got back to Britain and went straight to Scotland Yard and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, but both insisted my record was clear.”
Her arrival in Spain a year later passed without incident, but when she tried to fly back she found herself once again forcibly separated from her daughter. “They told me I was being locked up and sent to France and I just collapsed and started having a panic attack.
“They had to give me Valium to calm me down. I asked to say goodbye to Claire and my grandsons and when they came in, I just sat on the floor cuddling them, crying and crying. Then my dad came in and held me and promised he'd get me out.
“It was such a tragic scene, even the customs officers had tears in their eyes. They turned to my dad and said: Our hands are tied. This was 20 years ago. Why haven't the English done something about it?' I was handcuffed and taken with 30 other prisoners, all male, some with no teeth who looked absolutely bloody evil, to Madrid's maximum-security prison. I was thrown into a tiny airless cell with a bunk-bed and an open toilet that stank to high heaven at the end of the bed and a cell mate — a huge fat woman — who was in for smuggling cocaine and who kicked my bed all night whenever she thought I was breathing too loud.
“There were 500 of us on the women's wing. Breakfast was a stale roll, no butter, with coffee, and the only meal I could stomach all day. The noise was unbelievable, just a constant screaming, shouting and wailing, like a scene out of Midnight Express. I would pace up and down the exercise yard like a wild animal. After three weeks, I had sunk so low and become so withdrawn that I was placed on suicide watch.”
A week later, Deborah was freed when a judge refused to grant the extradition order because, under Spanish law, too much time had elapsed. But her suffering was far from over. On her return to Gatwick, she was arrested again and held overnight at Holloway prison before being released on £5,000 bail.
Again, Deborah had to endure an extradition hearing. Again, the judge — this time at Westminster Magistrates Court — ruled in her favour because of “passage of time”.
But despite all these victories, Deborah remains stuck in a Catch-22 situation — and a fugitive from French justice. Not even the fact that the original French appeal was technically invalid — because Deborah was never notified or given a chance to defend herself — will save her.
This is because, legally, the only way she can clear her name is to return to France and face a retrial — which could potentially end in her being imprisoned for six years — a risk she is understandably unwilling to take.
She asks plaintively: “For goodness sake, I'm a British citizen, why aren't the authorities helping me?” Tears roll down her cheeks. “I feel totally let down. My lawyers have written to David Miliband who initially didn't bother to reply and then said he didn't want to get involved, that it was down to the French.
The Home Office say they can't help, my MEP, Baroness Sarah Ludford, hasn't responded to my numerous emails and pleas for help. Everywhere I turn, they pass the buck. The only ones to take up my case are my local MP, Susan Kramer, and Fair Trials International, who've been
brilliant.”
Free Trials International says Deborah's is one of six cases it is highlighting in its campaign to change the legal system and introduce safeguards to better protect defendants' rights.
It says she has a strong case but that amending European law made by the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union will require key British politicians to take up her case, and that it could be a long, hard road.
Deborah is determined to keep fighting. “Maybe I'm meant to go down in history as the woman who fought and changed the law on European Arrest Warrants. I'd hate others to be subjected to the same humiliation. I'm not going to give up now.”
Reader views (18)
They (Europe) have taken over this country without a shot being fired and our government and polititians are too busy joining the gravy train to resist this continued onslaught from the unelected powers within Europe.
Tony Blair is again showing his true colours with his continued move towards EU Presidency.
- Paul F, Bristol UK
Deborah has approached the wrong MEP. She should try Gerard Batten who has already been trying to help Andrew Symeou, another British citizen caught in the trap of the EAW.
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP is unlikely to be able to help as the EAW was drafted by another LibDem MEP, Graham Watson.
- Stephanie Mcwilliam, Liskeard, Cornwall
The EU constitution is already in place, since the EU is a 'living constitution' whose institutions define the economic and legal protocols which limit the scope of democracy to advantage and/or disadvantage others, and thus makes it possible for democracy in the 21st century, to develop beyond its historical shortcomings. The paper constitution is simply another piece of paper, for the most part. This is similar to the US constitution in the 21st century, which is similarly executed, with the original piece of paper and its amendments consigned to the dustbin of history. This is why it is important to vote, and with regard for the unintended outcomes.
- Charles Smyth, Northern Ireland, Belfast.
This European project that costs us 20 billion a year is great fun isn't it?
Just wait until the EU Constitution is ratified illegally without the will of the people of this country. Then the real fun begins.
Another unelected glorious Leader President Blair will be ruining things again.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
This case has a disturbing parallel to the letrres de cachet of the Ancien Régime. The best approach to this is for Deborah Dark to submit to the extradition and then there will be something to challenge, instead of dragging this out into an opportunity for those in a position of responsibility, to shirk that responsibility and/or profit from it. It would be advisable to make arrangements for the PR and media rights, too. The European Arrest Warrant does have utility in confronting serious, intra-EU crime, but this example brings the whole process into serious disrepute, where good judgement is subverted to simply satisfying the legal process.
- Charles Smyth, Northern Ireland, Belfast.
Just one more reason to get out of the EU, and start producing our own legislation again.
- Ernest Hartland, Clevedon, United Kingdom
I was threatened with a European Arrest warrant by Newcastle Police for having an argument with a former employer who has defrauded ME out of my wages
I made phone calls to the said employment agency demanding payment,..then the coward boss runs to the Police crying
A snotty mouth detective comes on the phone threatening me with arrest !!!! efffing outrageous what a dump-hole sewer the UK has become,..it akin to a Stasi & Nazi state now
Pity the lazy scumbag detective never investigated the said employment agency company for millions of quid in fruad, wages fraud,..paying black money,.false claims to the Benefits agency,.Inland Revenue
I get threatend like I'm a terrorist by a Geordie spastic copper
- T. D., UK
Is not the real problem to do with the standards of the legal system in various countries?
And also, of course, the treatment of accused (but still presumed to be innocent) people in foreign jails?
If these two problems were sorted out, there would be no problem with an international extradition treaty, would there?
- John, Devon, UK
Well said 'John T' - I couldn't have said it better!
- Lilsta, London, England
Nick, you don't seem to have fully understood the story, here's a couple of important excerpts:
"A French court believed Deborah's account and acquitted her..."
Hence she was tried and found innocent and so left France to come back home.
"But bizarrely neither she nor her lawyer was informed that after her acquittal the French prosecution had successful appealed and Deborah had been sentenced to six years in prison, in absentia."
The real question is: How on earth could she have attended a retrial if she didn't even know it was happening?
She stood before a judge and jury once and was found innocent, that's all there needs to be known.
As for willingly going back to a French prison so she can fight to prove her innocence, yet again, why the hell should she?
Would you?
I wouldn't.
Your comment: "I find it incredible that someone can not notice that the car they are in has been tampered with..." I'm sorry but that's nonsense, 21 kilos of dense material in a car is nothing and would have been very easy to hide.
The facts as presented here are:
- The original French Court found her innocent.
- Turkish Customs believed her.
- The Spanish Courts believed her.
- The British Courts believed her.
She is only still wanted for arrest because of an illegitimate French retrial, sloppy bureaucracy and no-one accepting responsibility for the issue.
- John T, London
Is anyone interested in whether she was or was not actually guilty of the crime. The French prosecutors did appeal the 'innocent' decision at the time and it was overturned.
That said, it is too long ago to make a major issue out of pursuing her re-arrest now. If the French authorities screwed it up, then that's their fault, not hers. Their courts need to use a bit of discretion here, after all, it's not as though they can cover up their 'slip' any longer. If she had 'been on the run' all that time then it would be different. Not the case this time though, is it!
I know it would be novel, but perhaps the French legal system and, yes, the French government should apply some thought to the issue?
- Rogan, Irving
This just shows once again how the European dream is really a nightmare for the ordinary citizen.The only people who benefit are the political sharks in Brussels, who make their fortunes off the backs of the rest of us.
There are two exceptions, the two MEPs' from the British National Party, who obviously aren't doing it for money, because they wouldn't take all the stick they get if they were.Perhaps this poor lady should apply to them to take up the repeal of this pernicious law
- Madge Blair, Cahors France
I don't know what makes me more sick: the stubborn, arrogant incompetence of the French for doing all this in the first place, or the snivelling, lazy incompetence of us British for refusing to do anything about it.
There's plenty of law here - but where's the justice?
- John T, London
It's terrible that the french authorities didn't manage to contact her, although how easy can that be when someone moves abroad. However she is a convicted drug trafficker and should either accept her fate or go back and fight her for her innocence.
I find it incredible that someone can not notice that the car they are in has been tampered with as it would have to be ripped apart to hide that much drugs.
There would be a publci outcry if this was a fugitive from british justice who was avoiding extridition.
- Nick, london
As I understand it, she's not safe even in Britain, because the French can use the EU arrest warrant here. They need not produce evidence to get the warrant, and the arresting officers need not be uniform. In other word, it's legalised kidnap.
- Imarcher, Alton, England
So much for the argument you often hear now defending the use of large databases in law enforcement: "if you're innocent you have nothing to hide". The fact is that the use of mass-trawling databases like this starts to put the burden of proof on the innocent to establish their lack of guilt, something which can be difficult to do if they lock you up in a foreign jail first and ask questions later.
- Bloke, London
I am disappointed that the Conservatives also agreed to this legal nightmare. Unfortunately when powers are given away to the EU, you can't get them back - unless of course, you will think the unthinkable, Mr Cameron...
- Jools, London
This is horrendous, and is just the beginning of the price that Britain is going to pay for having such a weak Government. That will not stand up against the bully-boys, otherwise known as the EU commissioners that decide on the Laws that affect us.
- William, Hay~Heath UK
