Extradition Bill
5:00 pm
Lord Goodhart (Liberal Democrat)
My Lords, perhaps I may just reply to that. Of course, the charge is an event that happens at one particular point in time. It is possible, therefore, that someone is extradited who has already been charged. It is also possible that someone might be extradited for the purposes of a prosecution for which they have not yet been charged because the requesting country has never been in a position to further process the charge on them. So I do not think that "charge" is an appropriate word.
Certainly, "prosecution" appears to be perfectly adequate. Investigation prior to a decision whether to go ahead with a prosecution is not sufficient.