Extradited: The European Arrest Warrant and My Fight for Justice from a Greek Prison Cell

by Andrew Symeou

2003: The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is introduced under the Extradition Act. A mechanism intended to facilitate the speed and ease with which criminals are brought to justice, it prevents British courts from considering any evidence before extraditing a person wanted by the authorities of another European member state – a mechanism open to abuse and error. 2007: Eighteen-year-old Andrew Symeou travels to Greek island Zante to celebrate the end of exams with friends. While there, another British boy is punched in a nightclub and tragically dies two days later. The pair had never met and Andrew was in another nightclub at the time. Greek police beat witnesses, fabricate statements and pin the crime on a man from a photograph – one taken on a different night to the incident. 2008: Andrew is arrested at his north London home by British police with an EAW. He is wanted for murder. Private Eye described the Greek investigation as ‘flawed, contradictory and in places ludicrous’. A British coroner slammed it as being ‘a misguided effort to solve the crime’. Regardless, a British court was unable to prevent his extradition and, despite never having been questioned by police and publicly protesting his innocence, Andrew was thrown into a Greek prison with hardened criminals. He spent almost a year awaiting trial in truly horrific conditions, encountering violence, drugs, racism and rioting – the most extreme of which he witnessed in the infamous Korydallos Prison. ln 2011, Andrew was acquitted as the Greek police’s case unravelled. Extradited is the honest, moving, yet witty account of Andrew’s incredible fight for justice.

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2015

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a youngster going on holiday to mainland Europe, without you, this summer, then this is essential reading. If not, then this is still an excellent read and would be if it was just a novel, but sadly, it is all too true.
It is difficult to believe that this is Andrew Symeou’s first book as it is very well written and a gripping read. It could be an ‘unputdownable’ novel as you are gripped by the almost unbelievable events as they unfold, eager to find out what is next.
He does such a great job of characterisation, that you almost feel that you know some of the prisoners, some of the very sad damaged people, that he got to know so well during his time in Greek prison’s. This included the notorious Korydallos Prison in Athens. In 2013, the European Court of Human Rights had found Greece in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. Amnesty International has said that Korydallos “is renowned for its poor conditions which have resulted in regular uprisings by prisoners demanding improvements”. It is worth buying the book just to read Symeou’s account of his 6 months in Korydallos with drug dealers, murderers and others including a brilliant but unhinged individual who seems to be able to make almost anything electrical out of next to nothing, and the effect that that whole experience has on the mind of an individual.
If you are reading this to learn more about the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) you will wonder how this very flawed piece of legislation ever got onto the statute books of a country famed for Magna Carta and individual freedoms, but then as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, with responsibility for security, at the time told me, the government is “satisfied” with the EAW. He seemed uninterested in the growing number of totally innocent British people held on remand in terrible European prisons. But then, the EAW must be a nice tool to use if you are unconcerned about individual injustice and torment.
But back to the book. In Symeou’s words:
“I wrote Extradited because it’s a story that needs to be heard. This isn’t just another ‘bleeding heart’ sob story of an innocent person behind bars (we’ve all heard that story before). One of my key motivations behind writing this book was to show by example how vulnerable British citizens currently are – it highlights why our government must make further changes to the controversial European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
He quotes liberally from a journal that he managed to keep throughout his ordeal and from other sources, such as this from the BBC News, which states the fundamentals of the case:
“9 January 2010, BBC News.
PROTEST STAGED OVER BRITISH STUDENT IN GREEK JAIL
Supporters of a British student held in Greece on manslaughter charges have protested at London’s Greek embassy. Andrew Symeou, 21, is accused of killing Jonathan Hiles, 18, of Cardiff, by punching him in a nightclub on the isle of Zante in 2007. Mr Symeou, of Enfield, north London, is in Korydallos Prison in Athens, a jail condemned by Amnesty International.”
Symeou again:
“Despite our incredible fight for justice, the European Arrest Warrant meant that my extradition was inevitable. I was treated as though I was guilty and ended up in prison on remand having to endure some horrific situations. In the twenty-first century, within the European Union, this shouldn’t be allowed to happen. If the British authorities had the power to scrutinise the Greek investigation, I would have been exonerated – eliminating me from the scene of the crime as soon as they were issued with a warrant for my arrest. Not only would I have been able to continue with my life, but there would have been a chance to find the real assailant, who remains at large.”

Not in the book, but added as a final thought.

The first mistake is a failure to see that law is cultural. It does not come out of nowhere and law's genesis explains the way in which checks and balances develop and the ways in which consent is secured. Consent is essential to effective legal systems. Unlike the rest of Europe, which has what is called the 'civil law' system with codified laws and a career judiciary, we have a common law system. In the Middle Ages most European societies rediscovered Roman law and, having reworked it, they received it as the basis of their national systems. The English held out and through the creation of the Empire exported the Anglo-Saxon-based common law to all the English-speaking colonies.
(Baroness Helena Kennedy from "Just Law", 2004)

[Tammy Wooding]

2003: The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is introduced under the Extradition Act. A mechanism intended to facilitate the speed and ease with which criminals are brought to justice, it prevents British courts from considering any evidence before extraditing a person wanted by the authorities of another European member state – a mechanism open to abuse and error. 2007: Eighteen-year-old Andrew Symeou travels to Greek island Zante to celebrate the end of exams with friends. While there, another British boy is punched in a nightclub and tragically dies two days later. The pair had never met and Andrew was in another nightclub at the time. Greek police beat witnesses, fabricate statements and pin the crime on a man from a photograph – one taken on a different night to the incident. 2008: Andrew is arrested at his north London home by British police with an EAW. He is wanted for murder. Private Eye described the Greek investigation as 'flawed, contradictory and in places...