The committal to prison of a Poplar man to await e

The committal to prison of a Poplar man to await extradition
to Greece to complete a jail sentence for manslaughter, was
ruled unlawful today.

Two High Court judges set aside the decision of a Bow
Street stipendiary magistrate and ordered the committal
proceedings involving Richard Smith-Anderson, 23, to be reheard.

The decision by Mr Justice Rougier and Lord Justice Watkins
means that Smith-Anderson, a builder of Roy Square, Poplar will
be able to call evidence backing his claim that his 1991 release
from a Corfu gaol was final and that he was not unlawfully at
large thereafter.

The judges held that the magistrate’s decision to commit
the builder to Pentonville Prison was flawed in that he had
wrongly decided he could only hear representations in support
of his contention and not evidence.

Mr Justice Rougier, giving the court’s decision, said the
magistrate, under the provisions of the 1989 Extradition Act,
must receive evidence in an acceptable form.

Since the committal was invalid, Smith-Anderson could not
pursue the writ of habeas corpus he had a sought against the
Greek Government and the Governor of Pentoville, unless and
until there was a valid committal.

The judges renewed the builder’s bail and a pnds stlng 50,000
surety provided by a family friend.

He sat in court today with his
mother and other family members.

Smith-Anderson had been brought to trial on Corfu in October
1990 on charges arising from the death of Christopher Beechinor,
24, from Bath, Avon.

He died following a nightclub fracas in 1989.

Smith-Anderson was originally convicted of murder and
jailed for 15-years.

But the conviction was later reduced to
manslaughter and a four-and-a-half years jail sentence was
substituted.

The builder was allowed five-days home leave in August 1991,
but the Greek Government held his failure to return after a similar
release four months later, amounted to an escape from custody.

Smith-Anderson, who obtained a passport from the British
Consulate on Corfu and returned to England, accompanied by his
mother, has always maintained his release had been final.

ends