[UK] Man to be tried for murder after record-breaking extradition battle

[dunkace]

[QUOTE]The European Court of Human Rights has ruled a Scottish man should be tried for murder in the US following a record-breaking extradition battle.

It said Phillip Harkins' human rights would not be breached if he was jailed for life without parole in Florida.

The 38-year-old has been in jail in the UK since 2003, after being accused in a drugs-related attempted robbery.

He has always denied being involved in the killing and returned to Scotland in 2002 after being released on bail.

After his return to the UK, he was convicted and jailed for dangerous driving after killing a 62-year-old woman in a car crash in Greenock.

Following that sentence, the US authorities sought his extradition for the 1999 murder - triggering the unprecedented legal battle that has been before the European Court twice.

US prosecutors assured the UK that it would not seek the death penalty for Mr Harkins were he to be convicted of the murder.

But his lawyers have argued for years that the prospect of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole once reformed constituted inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-40548646[/url]