Brazil murder allegation dismissed for no case to answer

The Chief Magistrate threw out an extradition request from Brazil for a murder allegation last week.  The Government of Brazil had missed the extradition Court’s deadline for service of its case file after which the Court directed it would be too late for the Government to seek to rectify the situation.

The Judge departed from the conventional approach of dealing with all statutory challenges to extradition before deciding the case (Dempsey v USA [202] 1 WLR 3103), instead simply finding there was no case to answer and discharging the defendant.    

Ben Cooper KC and Mary Westcott represented the vulnerable transgender defendant, who spent over a month detained in a male prison at the start of extradition case earlier this year, despite her legally female gender, after which the High Court granted bail. Recognising the absence of a prima facie case in October, the Judge had already taken the highly unusual step in a murder prosecution of granting the defendant unconditional bail. 

Ben and Mary were instructed by Renata Pinter of Dalton Holmes Gray.