Brazilian extradition collapses

Abigail Bright secured the discharge on Wednesday of a Brazilian national from an extradition request issued by Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security in the Federative Republic of Brazil. The extradition request sought to enforce the decision of a court in Brazil to sentence the defendant to fourteen years and ten months imprisonment after a trial, at which he was present, for rape and sexual assault on a girl then aged fifteen.

Yesterday, the Government of Brazil gave notice that it will not appeal the decision. At an urgent hearing this morning, a judge ordered that the defendant must be released from prison.

The Government’s extradition case collapsed when a judge accepted the defendant’s submissions and found that extradition to Brazil would expose him to real risk of breaches of his absolute right to be free from violations of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (‘No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’). The defendant’s account (which Brazil disputed) was that he had served in prisons in Brazil for murder where he had witnessed extrajudicial killings.  

Abigail’s submissions focused on evidence demonstrating that prison conditions in Brazil breached the UK’s obligations under Article 3 of the Convention. The Government of Brazil had filed solemn diplomatic assurances in support of its extradition request. Principally, Abigail’s submissions rested on the inadequacy of such assurances.

The defendant’s earlier asylum appeal in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) against the Secretary of State for the Home Department also succeeded.