Extradited Read Online Free PDF Page A

days alone. It gave the links to the website and to an online petition that our friend Nick had set up. Hundreds of people began to sign it, most of whom I didn’t even know.
    I wrote a statement for the website, whereby I sent my deepest sympathies to the family of the victim. I felt sick knowing thata family could believe that I had killed their son. I couldn’t even begin to put myself in their shoes, but I had no choice but to defend my innocence against the injustice. Pre-trial detention in a foreign land wasn’t an option.
    Other than the website statement, I had no other input towards the campaign. I was emotionally exhausted, really depressed about it and finding it difficult to cope. The campaign was being built around me and I was rarely told what was going on. I just sat on my backside in my own little depressed world at the top of the garden, smoking and eating my worries away. It seemed to be the only way for me to escape.
    I was easily distracted too, because my house was usually packed with family and friends, many of whom brought food. Sometimes there would be so much food in my house that we could have set up a restaurant. Every day our kitchen island unit was covered with a variety of different dishes, like Cypriot oven-baked macaroni, meaty casseroles and soul-warming homemade soups. Italian friends of ours would bring cheesy pizzas and mouth-watering pasta bakes. I must have put on at least 10lbs within the first week, but I really didn’t care!
    On the day of the meeting with barrister John Jones, it felt almost surreal as I stepped out of my front door – it was the first time that I’d left the house in eight days. On the way to Russell Square in town, I remember sitting on the London Underground with an unsettled, queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was overwhelmed with anxiety just being out in public.
    Doughty Street consisted of rows of tall and narrow Georgian terraced houses – most of which had probably been converted into offices. As I entered the chambers I noticed that the building’s depth gave the illusion that it never ended. I felt out of my comfort zone as I sat at the oval wooden table in one of the boardrooms. Pouring myself a glass of water, I explained to JohnJones what I knew about the case against me in Greece. We hardly knew anything at the time; we were aware only of the two false statements that were beaten out of Chris and Charlie.
    John insisted that we hire a Greek lawyer and retrieve the investigating case file from Zante. My dad told John that someone had recommended George Pyromallis – a Greek lawyer based in Athens who John also happened to know.
    I explained to John that we had photographs from several different sources, all showing me in a different place on the night of the attack. There were also several witnesses who had been with me, a few of whom were girls that weren’t part of my immediate circle of friends. It was at this point that we learned that no evidence was to be considered in the extradition appeal! When issued with a European Arrest Warrant, a British court has no power to prevent an extradition based on evidence of innocence.
    My entire body froze as soon as I heard about what we were up against. I didn’t want it to be true. If it went to Greece I’d be facing prison on remand, but I wasn’t allowed to prove my innocence first. I wasn’t even a witness to the attack, for God’s sake! It felt like I was being gagged and suffocated.
    There had to be something that we could do to stop it from happening. John explained that we were limited to only a few articles of law upon which we could base our case. The truth was on our side – but the law upon which we could base our case. The European Arrest Warrant meant that the battle was going to be almost impossible to win.

4
----
THE INVESTIGATION
----
    E ver since I’d discovered what the European Arrest Warrant was, there was an anxiety in my chest that wouldn’t go away. I had