In May of 2015, seven FIFA soccer officials were arrested in Switzerland on corruption
charges.
Now, US authorities are attempting to extradite the group for prosecution.
So, what is extradition?
Well, extradition is how countries are able to prosecute people for crimes when the criminal
has left the country where the crime was committed.
Since a sovereign country is in control of its population and borders, there is no inherent
obligation to cooperate when it comes to criminal deportation.
As a result, a special process, known as extradition, is an agreement between countries to transfer
suspects to wherever they are intended to be prosecuted.
However, extradition is tricky.
Not only do some countries dislike each other, but many countries have laws that directly
contradict.
Although most of the time, countries do send suspects back to where they came from, there
are several reasons when that might not happen.
First, the criminal act must be illegal in both the receiving and extraditing countries.
A strict middle eastern nation would have a hard time trying to extradite a woman in
Canada for disobeying Sharia law.
Additionally, very few countries are willing to extradite for political or religious crimes,
as in the case of Julian Assange’s extradition request being denied by Ecuador.
A third reason is if the extraditing country disagrees with the potential punishment of
the person they’re sending back.
For example, a country that disagrees with the death penalty, like France, would refuse
to extradite a murderer to the US on the basis that they might get the death penalty.
Equally, if government officials believe that the host country may torture the person, they
would also refuse.
Finally, some countries, like Japan or Germany, do not usually extradite their own citizens.
However, they do often prosecute the person within their own borders.
Still, some types of offenses are considered international crimes, and directly obligate
host countries to extradite the person in question.
These crimes are usually terrorism-related.
Additionally, countries like the US have been implicated in what is called “extraordinary
rendition”, where suspects are kidnapped and sent to secretive locations called “black
sites” for prosecution.
Although most countries have simple extradition treaties with each other, no country has treaties
with all other countries.
Which means that if you’re going to commit a crime, there will always be a country where
you can run and hide.
Unless the CIA finds you.
If you’re interested in learning more about the secret illegal CIA Black Sites, make sure
you check out our full episode here.
Thanks for watching TestTube, make sure to subscribe now so you don’t miss a single
episode!