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Rough justice for foreign drivers
Page 9
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DUTCH TRANSPORT lawyer Han Vallendutik has highlighted the vagaries of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW ) system in a report on the plight of truck drivers in foreign jails.
Vallenduuk, who works closely with Fair Trials Abroad in the UK. says his report ,Alone in the World. highlights the impact of the EAW on accused drivers. Under this system truck drivers can he extradited to face legal proceedings in another European country.
Vallenduuk cites the case of a Dutch truck driver who was extradited to France under a EAW which, he says, was full of "falsehoods and exaggerations". Vallenduuk says the driver had not broken any law in France but has been in custody for 18 months and his trial is not due until April 2007.
Suspicion is enough to instigate a EAW.saysVallenduuk.and there is little that the legal system in the driver's home country can do.
For foreigners conditions in jail are made worse because of the language barriers and difficulty in getting access to English-speaking lawyers.
He alleges that duty lawyers in France working on a fixed-fee basis do not spend much time on their clients. And he says truck drivers jailed in France have to wait too long for their trials.