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Abbott says Parliament was misled by the government on US extraditions

THE government must urgently clarify why it failed to seek assurances from the United States for extraditions that could result in the death penalty, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott has urged.

Ms Abbott says that Parliament has been misled by Home Secretary Sajid Javid and Minister of State for Security Ben Wallace after Mr Javid made a statement to the High Court saying he feared “outrage” from US President Donald Trump if Britain sought such assurances for two suspected Isis terrorists.

Ms Abbott said the statement made to the court “directly contradicts” statements and assurances made to Parliament in July by the two Conservative ministers.

“Our policies should not be bent to the whims of the US president,” Ms Abbott said.

High Court judges heard on Monday that Mr Javid believed there was a risk of angering “key US political appointees” if he asked for a guarantee that Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh would not be executed.

The pair are said to have been members of a British four-man cell of Isis executioners in Syria and Iraq, nicknamed The Beatles. They are currently being held by Kurdish forces in Syria.

Mr Javid’s decision was outlined during a legal challenge by Mr Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, over the government’s sharing of information with authorities in the US without obtaining any assurance that the pair will not face execution if convicted there.

Ms Elgizouli argued that the sharing of information and material with the US authorities under a mutual legal assistance agreement without seeking the assurances was unlawful.

The suspects face a federal trial in the US after the Crown Prosecution Service decided there was “insufficient evidence” for them to be tried in Britain.

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