Rottman v commissioners of police for the Metropolis

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Rottman v commissioners of police for the Metropolis “Extradition search is lawful, lords say common law power is still available” The name of the parties are (appellant) commissioner of the police of the metropolis,(respondent) Mr. Michael Rottman . The judgment has been held in the house of lords. The judges on this were- Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Hutton and Lord Roger of Earlsferry. The barristers and solicitors in this case were, Mr. Perry, on behalf of the appellant and Miss Montgomery, for the respondent. The date of the judgment was 16th may 2002. MATERIAL FACTS- the respondent, Mr. Micheal Rottman , is a German businessman and was suspected of fraud in Germany. A court in Germany issued a warrant for his arrest on the 27th December 1996. The respondent left Germany at the end of 1995. On 13TH September 2000 the metropolitan police received a request from the German authorities via Interpol, for the respondent’s extradition to Germany. On 22nd September 2000 a provisional warrant for the respondents arrest was issued by the Bow street magistrate’s court under section 8(1) of the extradition Act 1989. The respondent was arrested a few yards from his front door. Though in section 17 of the police and criminal evidence act 1984,the police had to enter the grounds of the house to arrest according to the warrant . After a short period of time two German police officers arrived and asked Detective Sergeant Loudon, the senior Metropolitan police officer to search the house and seized a number of properties in it. The respondent brought an application for judicial review against the appellant and the home secretary in respect of the decision by the police to enter his home in Hazlem... ... middle of paper ... ...rrest of a suspect. The force was proportionate to that heading because it was subject to the safeguards that it could only be done after a warrant of arrest had been put out by a magistrate or justice of the peace in respect of an extradition crime and where the evidence laid before he would, in his view, justify the issue of a warrant for the apprehension of a person accused of a similar domestic offense. Lord Hope (dissenting opinion), agreeing that SS 18, 19 and 32 did not apply where a person was arrested under a provisional warrant for an extradition offense, said that the common-law powers available when effecting an arrest did not extend to a search of the premises for evidence, that in any event the power did not apply for an apprehension on a provisional warrant and that the encumbrance with the claimant's Article 8 rights had not been proportionate.

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