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UN asks Australia to justify its ‘cruel’ extradition bail laws
The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has given Australia until September to respond to a complaint about why it systematically refuses bail to its own citizens when subject to extradition requests by foreign countries.
Tony Zhang
Acting on a petition lodged by eminent human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson AO, QC, the UNHRC has indicated it will investigate why Australia has a general rule against bail for any person who is sought – rightly or wrongly – for extradition.
“Our courts cause real cruelty to people they lock up for years and deprive of the presumption of innocence, simply because it is a foreign country which wants to put them on trial,” Mr Robertson said.
Mr Robertson, who has handled many landmark human rights cases, said the UNHRC – which consists of 18 experts in international law – is expected to make its ruling early in 2021.
Experts say the harsh criteria to obtain bail represent a breach of our international treaty obligations and deny Australians facing unproven charges by foreign countries the fundamental human right relating to the “presumption of innocence”.
Advocating for imprisoned internet, technology and blockchain entrepreneur Zhenya Tsvetnenko, who was refused bail, Mr Robertson points to how our citizens can be incarcerated for years in Australia at the behest of a foreign country and face pressure to give up their rights and agree to be extradited even when the case against them is weak.
Although Australia ratified a binding international convention, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1980, it consistently breaches article 9, which states there must be no general rule against granting bail.
Previously Dr Ian Warren, a senior lecturer at Deakin University told Lawyers Weekly the indefinite imprisonment of Australians, who were not in a foreign country at the time of the alleged charges, points to one of the major problems with the current extradition system.
Mr Tsvetnenko, a father of two young children with close family and community ties, has been jailed at Hakea Prison since December 2018.
Accused of wire fraud by the US, Mr Tsvetnenko, who has never been a fugitive, was not in the US at the time relating to the alleged charges and strongly asserts he is not a flight risk.
A hearing to determine the eligibility of the extradition request will not be held until 2021.
Lodged in Geneva in late 2019, the petition to the UNHRC, which may benefit all Australians who could find themselves sought, rightly or wrongly, for trial in a foreign country, states the harsh reality that Mr Tsvetnenko may remain imprisoned in his own country for years before his extradition case is finally decided.
Mr Robertson says he is pleased the UN will scrutinise the cruel Australian extradition rule of denying bail, almost automatically, to those accused – sometimes wrongly – by a foreign country.
“It is pretty obvious that we are in breach of international law because s15(6) of the Extradition Act applies a general presumption against bail,” Mr Robertson said.
“It would be simple to amend the act and the government should do so immediately to avoid losing this case and perhaps having to pay compensation to people who are unnecessarily imprisoned.”
