A French national  will be returned to France after Sheriff Allan granted the French Governments extraditon request in the case of Nicolas Chadwick, held under a European Arrest warrant in Saughton prison.

The warrant stated that Chadwick was convicted in his absence of a violation of Article 227 of the French Penal Code in respect of the non- return to his former wife of three of their children following a period when they were visiting him under the terms of a court order. He was sentenced to a period of 30 months imprisonment.

Chadwick had fought the extradition on the basis that he would be discriminated against in French courts, but Sheriff Allan dismissed teh arguing, finding that there were no grounds upon which a claim of discrimination could be founded.

"There was nothing to suggest either that, at any further trial, on account of his religion, he would be treated any differently from anyone else appearing before the French courts, or that, conversely, the French courts were institutionally discriminatory towards someone of his, or anyone else's, religious beliefs,"

"Mr Dickson [Crown Office International Co-operation Unit] submitted that it was well-known that France sought to divide Church and State and that France had an independent judiciary. In addition, he submitted that it was fair to say that, even the French system had any quirks and foibles, it had to be seen as an independent judicial system within a friendly Member State of the European Union, which was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and, as such, could be trusted to ensure that the trial process (if it took place) would be fair within that system, and that there would be mechanisms in it to address the perceived concerns expressed by Mr Chadwick."

"In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, Mr Dickson submitted that this court had no basis to be concerned about him receiving a fair trial and that this court could accordingly trust the French system to provide that fair trial,"

"There was nothing in what Mr Chadwick had said to show that he was part of a group that was a minority or that that group had a characteristic or status that placed it within the terms of Article 14 - against which this court would, if it had been established, have had to examine how its rights would be restricted or discriminated against under one or other of the Articles of the Convention."