London MEP Sarah Ludford protests Symeou EAW treatment (Barking and Dagenham Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barking and Dagenham Borough Liberal Democrats <barkinganddagenham@libdems4london.org.uk>

London MEP Sarah Ludford protests Symeou EAW treatment

January 8, 2010 8:00 PM
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP

Tomorrow, Saturday 9 January, London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford will be joining Andrew Symeou's family and Fair Trials International outside the Greek embassy in London in a protest against Andrew's continued unjust detention in a Greek jail following extradition under a European Arrest Warrant.

Andrew Symeou, 21, from Enfield, was returned to Greece in July 2009 on a controversial charge related to the death of a fellow young Briton in a Greek nightclub. He has been denied bail and his lawyers maintain there have been brutal police tactics, fabrication of evidence and even torture of witnesses.

Sarah Ludford, the LibDems' European justice & human rights spokeswoman said:

"Andrew Symeou's unjust treatment must come to an end. Greek authorities have denied him bail and kept him in prison for the last six months purely because he is a foreigner. This discriminatory treatment offends against European human rights and undermines the principles of measures like the European Arrest Warrant."

"I will be delivering a letter to Greek prime minister George Papandreou demanding not only Andrew's immediate release on bail pending trial but also a serious investigation into police conduct."

"Defendants must be confident that they will be treated decently and given a fair trial throughout the EU. It is unfortunate if the European Arrest Warrant, which is basically a good instrument, gets discredited by bad cases."

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1. The demonstration, which has been organised by the Justice for Andrew Symeou campaign will be held tomorrow, Saturday 9 January at 10.30am outside the Greek embassy, 1A Holland Park, London W11 3TP.

2. Sarah Ludford is 'rapporteur' for the European Parliament's justice & civil liberties committee on a proposed new EU law which would require interpretation and translation to be provided when necessary for suspects in criminal proceedings and more broadly she has followed issue like the European Arrest Warrant for the last decade as an MEP.