Appeal sparks fresh battle to extradite first Scot to Taiwan

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GERRY BRAIDEN

using a friend’s passport and changed his name by deed poll to Callum Rafael Scott. He had been living in Edinburgh for more than a year before he was detained by police in October 2013, and spent two-and-a-half years at HMP Edinburgh while the extradition process took place.

Speaking last night, Dean’s solicitor Graeme Brown said his client was prepared to oppose his extradition, insisting: “His fight goes on”. Mr Brown added: “This is a setback to his case. But it has still got some way to go before the matter is resolved. I will meet with Mr Dean in the coming days and discuss the next stage of his battle.”

Last year at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, Dean’s legal team successfully argued that sending the businessman back to the country contravened the European Convention on Human Rights because prison conditions there were poor and Dean was under threat of attack.

But yesterday the Supreme Court ruled out attempts by Dean’s legal team to block the Lord Advocate’s appeal and sent the case back to the High Court to consider.

Lord Hodge rejected claims Dean, who spent 19 years living in Taiwan, would be kept in unreasonable conditions, with retired professor of criminal justice at Glasgow Caledonian University, James McManus, sent to inspect the facilities.

Lord Hodge said: “This is the first occasion on which Taiwan has sought to extradite a United Kingdom citizen and the memorandum of understanding and the assurances are therefore untested; but that novelty is significantly outweighed by other

Zain Dean fled Taiwan in 2012 after being found guilty of crashing his car into a newspaper vendor’s scooter.