Suspects wanted abroad free to roam our streets
FUGITIVES wanted in connection with serious offences overseas – including murder, rape and organised crime – are regularly being bailed back on to the streets after being arrested hiding in the UK.
Several suspects wanted in connection with an array of crimes were remanded into custody after being found by police, only to be later freed on conditional bail by Westminster Magistrates’ Court while they fight extradition.
The majority of those wanted for serious crimes who are held on European or international arrest warrants are remanded in custody as they are deemed to be at a high risk of absconding.
In 2018 convicted Albanian murderer Hektor Mahmutaj, 45, fled after being released on conditional bail while his extradition case was
determined. He was on the run for two years before he was recaptured and extradited.
However, people wanted for serious offences are regularly released.
The Sunday Express tracked extradition cases at the court over the past six months. More than 200 fugitives suspected of murder, rape, robbery and firearms offences have been released on bail to fight their extradition.
Among those are three men arrested in the Midlands last month in connection with a high-profile politically motivated assassination in India in 2009.
The suspects are under electronically monitored curfews, must not enter international travel hubs and must keep their mobile phones on 24 hours a day.
Other cases include a Polish man arrested in Coventry last year who should have been serving four years in prison after being convicted of a rape in which he left the victim badly injured after hitting her over the head with a rock.
He was initially remanded in custody but later bailed by the court after paying £10,000 security. His extradition was ordered in November but he has appealed to the High Court and remains on bail while he fights it.
David Spencer, research director of think tank the Centre for Crime Prevention, said: “It’s scandalous that people suspected of serious, violent crimes – some committed against women and children – are being freed to roam our streets.
“These people should not even be in the country given the scale of the crimes they are suspected of.
“It is an insult to all victims of crime that they are fighting to avoid justice in their home countries and are free to live in our communities while they do so.”
A spokeswoman for the judiciary said: “Whether or not to grant bail is a decision of the courts to make.
“The Bail Act provides for a general presumption that bail will be granted in all cases, except in specific circumstances.”