Former cabinet ministers oppose extradition of Cambridge tech entrepreneur
Former cabinet ministers have urged the Government not to allow a Cambridge tech tycoon to be extradited to the US over fraud charges.
They say the UK has "surrendered sovereignty" over its justice system for "too long".
Electrical engineering expert Michael Lynch is the former boss of a Cambridge software company called Autonomy. He sold the company to Hewlett Packard in 2011 for eleven billion dollars.
The company claims he overstated the value of the firm and wants him extradited to face legal action in the US.
An extradition request for Mr Lynch, who has a PhD in signal processing from the University of Cambridge, was submitted to British authorities in November 2019.
Hewlett Packard is seeking damages of 5 billion dollars.
Mr Lynch, who owns a farm in Suffolk, denies the allegations and says any loss was down to mis-management by Hewlett Packard.
In a joint letter published in The Times newspaper, ex-ministers and former business leaders claimed Mr Lynch could face "a decade in prison" if extradited and convicted.
The letter said:
"The Serious Fraud Office considered the case involving Mike Lynch and decided there was nothing worthy of prosecution.
"The High Court picked over the issues for 10 months. The British legal system is quite capable of dealing with this. But our extradition treaty with the US can mean none of that matters."
The letter warned that the treaty meant "any British businessman or woman who finds themselves at odds with a powerful US company could face the same fate".
It added:
"That means facing a system where prosecutors cut deals offering their own witnesses immunity, while those who want to testify for the defendant risk being dubbed 'co-conspirators' and prosecuted. This is not justice."
Signatories to the letter include four Conservative ex-cabinet ministers: former Brexit secretary David Davis, former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell, former minister for the Cabinet Office Lord Maude of Horsham, and former secretary of state for the environment Lord Deben.
Joining them is ex-Liberal Democrat MP Sir Vince Cable, who served as business secretary in the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government, and Lord Hall of Birkenhead, former director-general of the BBC.
Veteran Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, former Barclays bank chairman Marcus Agius and Sir John Rose, former chief executive of Rolls-Royce, have also signed the letter.
The letter also highlighted Boris Johnson's criticism of the UK's extradition treaty with the US.
It said: "The Prime Minister accepts the treaty is unbalanced. The Foreign Secretary has railed against it. Politicians on all sides want it changed.
"We've surrendered sovereignty over our own justice system for too long. The Government cannot stand by as another Briton risks being delivered like this to the US justice system."
The extradition case is next listed for a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 8th.