Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
I am a little confused - are we talking about somebody already tried and found guilty in the first country, or somebody being extradited to be tried? I think that makes a difference.
In this particular case, he'd already been convicted but escaped before being sentenced. Arguably, that is evidence in itself of his guilt for other purposes (if the victim wanted to sue him for it, for example, she could use this conviction as proof rather than starting from scratch with witnesses, evidence etc), but I would have thought the same would apply if he'd escaped before trial but enough evidence existed to put him on trial.

Thorne: yes, he had plea-bargained on one of the six charges, but since he fled before the end of the trial the other five remain outstanding and presumably will do until he either dies or returns to face trial. I've avoided mentioning the name to try to avoid this being a discussion of a particular individual: I wanted to focus on the broader question of extradition policy in general. As you asked, what if it had been someone other than a famous director ... supposing you or I raped (or murdered, or whatever) someone in one country, then fled to another, should that country shelter us? If it had been me, any developed country I can think of including my own would just ship me straight back for trial: my government makes it very clear that if I get myself arrested abroad, all they can, will and should do is ensure I have legal advice and a translator if necessary - and in my book, it would be morally as well as legally wrong for them to do any more than ensure I get a proper trial and defence.

Lucy: yes, that was one of the two cases which inspired this thread, but I wanted to avoid getting caught in the specifics of that particular case to address the more general moral question: should governments work for the interests of each individual citizen, or for justice - should they ensure there is a fair trial and the accused serves their sentence if applicable, or enable the suspect to escape the trial and/or sentence if there's a way to do so? In some cases that might be the only option - totalitarian regimes might not offer a fair trial at all, making no trial the lesser evil, but that's another situation entirely.