David Birkinshaw and Matthew Neale were enjoying a stag weekend in Riga, when they found themselves accused of assaulting a policeman. There is no doubt that a scuffle of some kind took place, and a Latvian policeman claimed to have been hurt, although his injuries were described as "minor". It was never clear that the two Derby men had any part at all in the fracas.

Initially they came home to Derby, where David Birkinshaw was planning to marry his long-time fiancée, and mother of his child, Rachel Gee. But both men were sent back to Latvia under the European Arrest Warrant, where they spent ten weeks in a Stalin-era prison described by Latvia's own President as "not fit for animals". This was a time of appalling uncertainty. For a long time they had no details of charges, no assurance of a trial date, no assurance that adequate translation would be provided - and the looming possibility that they might be found guilty, and imprisoned in dreadful conditions for a lengthy period.

[Photo. Andrew Symeou]

The extract above is from the blog of Roger Helmer MEP.

Andrew Symeou, another victim of the EAW, has now spent 3 months, almost forgotten, in his Greek prison cell, with no sign of a trial date. His father said (fairtrials.net):

'It has been hell ever since he arrived in Greece. I've never seen anything like it. When I first saw him, he'd been forced to sleep on a concrete slab with a filthy, flea-infested blanket which had been left unwashed in the cell for years. 'At one point he was sharing a cell with five Albanian illegal immigrants, in 37C heat with the windows welded shut and a stinking toilet in the corner of the room. He wasn't allowed out of his cell once in four nights. 'When I looked into his eyes this week I saw sheer, blind terror. I'm not sure how many pieces my heart is in now, but what I do know is that it will take a lot for it to heal. 'This is a young man who has never been in any trouble before. He's never been in a fight or been violent to anybody, and the so-called evidence brought against him in this case would be laughed out of a British court. 'But our authorities put Andrew on a plane without any questions asked. We feel utterly helpless and it makes me so angry I can't tell you.'