Extradition from Northern Ireland—Sean Garland Flees

Sean Garland, the head of the Irish Worker’s Party, has fled from Northern Ireland to escape extradition.^[1] According to the Washington Times, a statement on Mr. Garland’s personal website states that “he has decided to remain in the Republic of Ireland, where British authorities allowed him to travel two weeks ago for medical treatment.”^[2]

Since Mr. Garland’s arrest in early October, details about his alleged involvement with a huge North Korean counterfeit currency ring have been made public.^[3] The Koreans are accused of creating massive amounts of so-called “supernotes,” which are exceptionally high quality US$100 bills.^[4] Mr. Garland is accused of trafficking in more than US$1 million of the currency.^[5]

According to the Washington Times, Mr. Garland “initially agreed to return to Belfast for an extradition hearing related” to the charges, but he then determined that the proceedings would not be fair.^[6] That may be, but it is more likely that he is aware that the Republic of Ireland is a far more difficult country from which to get extradition suspects than Northern Ireland is. See, for example, our post on such difficulties, here.

We have previously discussed Mr. Garland here.

In an unrelated, but interesting piece of news, Rachid Ramda, who we mentioned yesterday, will be extradited to France.^[7] He will no longer be the man who has been waiting in British jail the longest for an extradition decision.

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[1] Bill Gertz, Irish Forgery Suspect Flees to Avoid U.S. Extradition, Washington Times, Nov. 17, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id. See also, Tim Johnson, N. Korea Accused of Printing Bogus U.S. $100 “Supernotes,” San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct. 29, 2005, available here.
[4] Johnson, supra note 3.
[5] Gertz, supra note 1.
[6] Id.
[7] Algerian Terror Suspect to Face Extradition from Britain, Agence France-Presse, Nov. 17, 2005, available here.