Extradition
Extradition is a legal procedure, where law enforcement officials, in one legal jurisdiction, will make an extradition request for an individual in another legal jurisdiction, in order to try that individual for crimes they have accused him or her of committing there.
The legal officials requesting extradition may be turned down, flat, if they find the request unsatisfactory. If there is insufficient evidence the suspect committed a crime he or she will not be arrested, will not be extradited. For instance, Indian officials repeatedly requested the extradition of Sikh leader, in British Columbia who supported granting Sikhs greater autonomy, in India. Of course, in Canada, Canadians can advocate for greater autonomy for groups within Canada, and so long as their advocacy is peaceful, it is not a crime.
If the request is satisfactory, he will be arrested, but the suspect may appeal his extradition, on various grounds.
Individuals arrested in Canada, on US requests, have delayed or derailed their extradition requests, when the US prosecutors seek a death penalty. Canada does not allow death penalties, so suspects cannot be extradited when US prosecutors seek a death penalty.
Suspects can appeal extradition on the grounds that the charges stated in the extradition request are not crimes in the country that has hosted them.
Extrajudicial extradition
[edit | edit source]In spite of the similar names Extrajudial extradition, a procedure the USA has used in recent decades, is not a legal procedure. There is no appeal procedure. Individuals are seized not based on evidence they have committed a crime, but rather on suspicion they are sympathetic to a crime they played no role in, or that they may commit a crime in the future. The USA sends these individuals to cooperative totalitarian states who are happy to hold them indefinitely, without charging them. In a large fraction of cases the USA has paid the totalitarian state to hold these individuals. In many cases the USA hase paid the totalitarian state to interrogate the individuals, under torture, or to allow US agents to torture them, in their prisons.