An interesting Point:
I was head of the Cyprus Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when Asil Nadir of Polly Peck fled the UK while on bail (an old scandal you could google).
Nadir was in a hotel in North Cyprus, and I was discussing with MI6 a plan to kidnap him and bring him in to one of the UK sovereign base areas on the island.
The plan was blocked because, in a case recent at that time, the House of Lords had ruled that anyone taken unlawfully and brought into our jurisdiction could not be held and tried.
It ran through my mind again when considering the Athens case. The joy of extraordinary rendition is, of course, that you are not bringing them in to this country, where they would have the protection of the courts, but you’re kidnapping them and taking them to places where they can be abused and tortured.
Returning back down memory lane to the Nadir case, I am convinced there was complicity by the authorities in his escape. The police surveillance unit was stood down for the bank holiday weekend to avoid the expense of paying them overtime (I am not making this up). He plainly knew this was going to happen, because within minutes he was in a fast car (driven by a professional racing driver) who drove him to an airfield where a private plane was waiting with engines running.
There were many in the then political establishment who had taken Nadir’s shilling and didn’t want him in the witness box. That is why I was looking at extreme measures to get him back.
But you will have to wait until I have finished my second book, and it’s been banned, before you learn more of that…
Craig