UK/Spain: Hilali tape "lost" as conspiracy collapses
01 August 2006
Farid Hilali has been detained in various jails since 2004, on a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Spanish Central Criminal Court. The basis of the warrant is that Hilali telephoned the "al-Qaeda leader in Spain", Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, prior to the 11 September attacks, and claimed to be "ready to slit the throat of the bird." The Spanish state claims that Hilali, who has lived in Britain for the last 13 years, is also known as Shukri, or Shakur. An extradition order was made at Bow Street Magistrates Court on 1 June 2005, which has been upheld by the Divisional Court and the Administrative Court. The warrant, though, is based on a lie - and the facts behind the lie are facts of which both the British and Spanish states are fully aware.
On 26 September 2005 the alleged co-conspirator, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of a lesser charge of conspiracy to murder. Subsequently, this conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. During the course of these proceedings, it emerged that the tape recording Spain relies on in seeking Hilali's extradition, does not in fact exist. In the High Court, the Crown Prosecution Service, acting for the Spanish state, claimed the tapes had been played in court during Yarkas's trial. This was untrue. The prosecutor in the Yarkas case admitted that the tape recordings - now claimed as "lost" - were of such poor quality that no voice analysis could be carried out. In the Spanish courts, the prosecution made no claim that Hilali was "Shakur".
Thus, Hilali is detained, facing extradition on the basis of taped evidence that no longer exists, in relation to a conspiracy of which, according to the Spanish Supreme Court, his co-conspirator was not guilty. According to the Spanish Supreme Court, the telephone intercept evidence was illegally obtained, and the evidence of any conspiracy was "slim, precarious and inconsistently analysed." The Supreme Court has declared the telephone tap evidence "null and void" in relation to the Yarkas case.
Hilali's legal team have launched a habeas corpus action in a bid to release him.
Letters of support to: Farid Hilali HP 8485, HMP Whitemoor, March, Cambs, PE15 OPR