It’s time to stop extraditing public-interest whistleblowers

TJN has just co-signed a letter published by the U.S. Governmental Accountability Project (GAP,) drawing attention to the topsy-turvy situation where whistleblowers acting in the public interest are being extradited to other countries, under procedures that were originally created to fight against Mafia organisations, terrorist financiers, international criminals and so on.

Tools for fighting for the public interest are being turned against the public interest.

This letter focuses on tax evasion and it is aimed at public authorities in the United States. See GAP’s version of the letter here.

But this extradition issue obviously has relevance well beyond tax evasion, and far beyond the United States. We expect, and plan to be involved in, further initiatives in this area, in due course. We hope others will too.

This is an issue whose time has come, as we just observed.