American kidnapping admission outrageous betrayal of human rights

9.12.26pm UTC (GMT +0000) Sun 2nd Dec 2007

Commenting on reports that the US Government believes that kidnapping British citizens and extraditing them to the US is permissible under American law, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said "This extraordinary assertion of the supremacy of American law over British law shows just how weak-kneed the Government has been in entering into a lopsided extradition treaty with the US."

Continuing Nick said "We urgently need to know whether ministers knew that the US authorities felt entitled to kidnap British citizens on British soil at the time at which the Government signed the treaty with Washington. If so, this is an outrageous betrayal of the fundamental rights of British citizens under British law."

"This Government's limpet like loyalty to the Bush administration's foreign policy is bad enough. Now it appears that ministers are happy to sacrifice our domestic rights to the heavy-handed demands of the White House too."