STRASBOURG: A 39-year-old British murder suspect who has spent 14 years fighting his extradition to the United States lost his final appeal today at the European Court of Human Rights.
Philip Harkins was arrested in Britain in 2003 over the killing of a man during an armed robbery in Florida but fought his extradition through the British and European courts twice. Harkins argued that he faced the risk of the death sentence in the US -- which American authorities had promised not to seek -- or a full-life sentence which he claimed infringed on his human rights.
These arguments were rejected by the European Court of Human Rights in 2012, but Harkins appealed again to the Strasbourg-based court in 2014, arguing that he would not get a fair trial. This argument was rejected today. "The decision is final," said the court in a statement. "The facts of the case did not disclose any risk that Mr Harkins would suffer a flagrant denial of justice," it added.