Diogo Santos Coelho (aka “Omnipotent” of RaidForums) was arrested in January 2022 in the U.K. when he traveled there to visit his mother. For the past 3+ years, he has been in limbo while both the U.S. and Portugal seek his extradition.
It has not been a straightforward matter legally. Far from it, actually. The U.S. requested extradition based on alleged crimes Coelho committed in running RaidForums. But Portugal issued a warrant for Coelho, who is a Portuguese national and whose crimes affected Portuguese entities and residents.
One extradition request followed by one warrant. What would the U.K. do? What Coelho wanted them to do was to send him back to Portugal to stand trial there. He had actually consented to being extradited there and a judge ordered him to be extradited there. And that would have been but for that pesky request from the U.S. and the fact that procedural errors were made in evaluating the competing claims and making a decision.
U.K. law does have provisions that cover what should happen in the event of a warrant and a request competing, but it seems like the procedures were not followed correctly.
Today, Coelho didn’t win the war, but he won an important court battle.
Coelho had raised a number of issues because the Secretary of State for the Home Department decided that he should be extradited to the U.S. It was a decision that the minister appears to have made after only a cursory skimming of documents that were not even accurate.
There were a number of issues before the high court. The filings nvolved issues of human rights, Coelho’s mental health issues, issues of being near family and supports, and issues of whether both countries have equal or non-equal claims in terms of the charges being filed and the extent and location of victims. But one of the biggest issues before the court was one of unfairness: Coelho had not been permitted to present his evidence and justification to be sent to Portugal to the decision-maker (the Secretary of State for the Home Department), who, based on inaccuate information and having disallowed submissions from the parties, had prioritized the U.S. request.
AI produced a decent summary of the case and the judge’s decision. In the summary that follows, the Claimant is Coelho.
In a significant development, the High Court of Justice in London has quashed a decision by the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) that favored the extradition of Diogo Santos Coelho to the United States. The ruling, delivered by Mr. Justice Linden, not only overturns the previous order but also affirms the Claimant’s right to make representations to the Secretary of State before a new decision is made on whether he should be extradited to the US or Portugal.
The court found that the initial decision-making process was flawed on several grounds, fundamentally agreeing with the Claimant’s arguments that the process was procedurally unfair.
Key Aspects of the Judge’s Ruling:
Breach of the Duty to Act Fairly: The court concluded that the SSHD’s refusal to consider representations from the Claimant was unlawful. The judge rejected the argument that the Extradition Act 2003 excludes the common law duty to act fairly. He stated that the SSHD’s policy of never permitting representations in such cases was contrary to this duty. This establishes a crucial precedent for the Claimant’s right to be heard.
Mistake of Fact: The judgment found that the SSHD’s decision was based on “material errors of fact.” The court determined that the Minister was wrongly advised that the offenses in the US and Portuguese requests were “identical,” when in fact the Portuguese warrant included additional serious offenses of money laundering and tax fraud. Furthermore, the decision was based on the incorrect premise that all victims were located in the US, while evidence showed a global spread of victims, including the Portuguese state itself.
Failure to Consider Relevant Factors: The judge ruled that the SSHD irrationally failed to take into account relevant considerations. This included overlooking the greater seriousness of the offenses alleged by Portugal and failing to consider the Claimant’s personal interests and ties to Portugal, which are pertinent to the decision.
What This Means for the Claimant:
The immediate effect of this ruling is that the order to prioritize the US extradition request is nullified. The Secretary of State is now required to reconsider the competing extradition requests from the US and Portugal.
Crucially, the judgment affirms the Claimant’s right to submit representations to the SSHD before this new decision is made. This provides a significant opportunity for the Claimant’s legal team to present arguments and evidence on why he should be extradited to Portugal rather than the US. These representations can cover a range of factors, including:
- The Claimant’s status as a victim of modern slavery.
- His diagnosis of autism and heightened suicide risk.
- The availability of family and therapeutic support in Portugal.
- The fact that the alleged offenses were committed while he was a child and living in Portugal.
- Portugal’s status as a signatory to the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (ECAT).
The ruling represents a major victory for the Claimant, ensuring a more thorough and fair process in determining his extradition. The Secretary of State’s new decision will now have to be made after considering all relevant facts and representations from all parties involved.
As Coelho told DataBreaches today, this doesn’t mean that he will get extradited to Portugal, but it gives his legal team a chance to be heard by the SSHD before any reconsidered decision is made.