BRITAIN/US: The so-called NatWest Three are braced for extradition to the United States this morning just hours after learning of the apparent suicide of a witness in their case who was allegedly "hounded" by the FBI.
The body of the man found in east London parkland yesterday was identified as Neil Coulbeck, a former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) executive, who had given evidence to the US law enforcement agency about the Enron fraud case involving RBS subsidiary NatWest.
The shock discovery of Mr Coulbeck's body was confirmed just after MPs registered a symbolic protest vote against the Blair government's controversial extradition arrangements with the US at the end of an emergency three-hour debate.
During the debate, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives said the government's extradition treaty was "unfair and imbalanced" and urged ministers to use emergency legislation to prevent an "injustice" in the case of the NatWest Three, who have unsuccessfully battled in the courts to have their trial heard in Britain.
Former Conservative leader Michael Howard launched a withering attack on Tony Blair - charging that good relations did not require the prime minister of the United Kingdom to be "a poodle" of the American president. Urging emergency legislation to remove the US from the list of countries designated under the 2003 Act, Mr Howard insisted: "It is not too late for the injustice we all fear to be averted."
On Tuesday night, peers defeated the government in a House of Lords vote calling for the suspension of the new extradition arrangements between the UK and US until the American senate also ratified the treaty.
Yesterday afternoon, MPs registered their anger by winning a surprise majority on a technical motion to adjourn Commons business.
However, neither the depth of parliamentary anger nor fresh concerns expressed last night following claims that Mr Coulbeck had been "hounded" by the American authorities, appeared to move Mr Blair, who earlier told MPs he had been informed by US prosecutors they would not oppose unconditional bail in the NatWest case.
The three British bankers - David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby - are due to be flown to Houston, Texas, this morning to face accusations of an £11 million (€15.9 million) fraud in which their former employer NatWest was advised to sell part of an Enron company for less than it was worth in 2000, which allegedly earned them £4 million (€5.8 million).
It is understood Mr Coulbeck - who was former head of financial markets for RBS in North America - gave a witness statement stating he had not authorised this transaction, and would not have been a central witness in the proposed trial.
The case has provoked a storm of criticism over the new extradition laws, which do not require the US to provide prima facie evidence of wrongdoing to extradite a UK citizen.
A growing sense of outrage has been heightened by the continued failure of the American senate to ratify its side of the deal, rushed through the Commons primarily as an anti-terrorist measure in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks on the US.
However, during prime minister's questions, Mr Blair told MPs: "In the attorney general's view, the test that is applied by the United States, the one of probable cause, is roughly analogous to the one we apply in this country." Mr Blair added that "the case for extradition was originally mounted under the old law, not the new law" and asserted: "I do not believe it would be right if we ended up applying a higher standard and burden of proof to America than we do to many other countries."
Answering for the government in the emergency debate, Mike O'Brien, the solicitor general, also maintained it was "a myth" that the NatWest Three case was about allegations arising from the UK only.
Mr O'Brien briefly stopped referring to the three men as "the Enron Three", after Tory complaints that the expression was prejudicial. He stoutly defended the extradition arrangements with the US and said "exact reciprocity between different legal systems is probably impossible".