Opposition to extradition for the ‘NatWest Three’

Jeffrey Green Russell acted for the so-called ‘NatWest Three’ to oppose the application by the US Government to extradite them to stand trial in the USA, despite the fact that the alleged victim, the documents, witnesses and the alleged conduct were all in the UK. In an effort to secure an investigation and prosecution, if necessary, in the UK we applied to Court to review the failure of the Serious Fraud Office to get involved. While this was unsuccessful, it was helpful in raising the profile of the case and some useful documents were disclosed to us.

The case became political and forced the UK Government to put pressure on the US Senate to approve the Extradition Treaty signed in 2003. This still does not equalise the arrangements and the UK remains the only country in the world which will extradite its citizens to the USA without there being any evidence of a crime and without any consideration of where the appropriate place for a trial is.

Everest attempt - private prosecution for gross negligence manslaughter

Jeffrey Green Russell took on a very rare private prosecution case by acting for the parents of the youngest Briton ever to climb to the top of Everest but who sadly died on his descent from the mountain. A case of gross negligence manslaughter was said to lie by the District Judge in York Magistrate's Court against three individuals and the company that organised the climb but the case was subsequently dismissed by the Crown Court. The body of the victim has never been recovered and this presented insurmountable difficulties in proving the case to the high standard required. Nevertheless, our case raised the issue of safety in organised attempts of Everest and the family hopes that their plight will serve to ensure that avoidable risks are not taken on these and other "extreme" sporting activities in future.