In the universe of unjust Enron-related criminal prosecutions, the NatWest Three case was particularly pernicious.
Three bankers from the United Kindom, who did nothing other than to have the misfortune of entering into a deal with the CFO of one of the largest public corporations in the U.S., were indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston, uprooted from their jobs and homes in the U.K., extradited to the U.S. under a post-9/11 law that was enacted to facilitate the extradition of terrorists, and forced to endure a four-year ordeal before they were able to return home to their families in the U.K. Two of the NatWest Three — David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew — describe the barbaric treatment that they experienced in this series of interviews on the Ungagged.Net website.
Now safely back in the U.K., Bermingham is trying to do something constructive with his horrifying experience — that is, change the absurd U.K. statute that allowed the U.S. to extradite Bermingham and his colleagues without even the protection of an evidentiary hearing in the U.K. to determine whether there was evidence of a true crime.
Below is Bermingham’s testimony before the Joint Committee of Human Rights in the U.K. Not only does he provide a lucid and compelling argument for modification of the extradition statute, he also touches on several of the troubling aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system that have been often discussed here, such as draconian plea bargains, prosecutorial misconduct, witness intimidation, and the trial penalty, just to touch on a few.
After watching this video, ask yourself this question — just how have we gotten to the point where we are wasting our governmental resources on prosecuting people such as Bermingham?