British boss wanted by US for selling missile components to Iran has seven days to give himself up for extradition
By Daily Mail UK
Last updated at 12:01 AM on 17th February 2012
Wanted: Christopher Tappin, who cares for his seriously ill wife, faces a possible 35 years in jail
A retired businessman was yesterday given just a week to surrender to U.S Marshals over conspiracy charges which he vehemently denies.
Christopher Tappin, a 64-year-old grandfather and golf club president, is accused of trying to export batteries for Iranian missiles but claims he was the victim of an FBI sting.
Campaigners said he is the latest victim of the unfair Extradition Act, which is also being used to pursue Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon.
This week, the European Court of Human Rights – which only days ago saved hate preacher Abu Qatada from extradition to Jordan – rejected his plea to intervene.
He has been ordered to surrender to Heathrow police station at 9.30am next Friday, where U.S Marshals will escort him to custody in America.
Mr Tappin, of Farnborough, Kent, who cares for his seriously ill wife, faces a possible 35 years in jail.
Last night, MPs renewed calls for urgent reform of the controversial Act, which campaigners believe is unfairly weighted against Britons.
Former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: ‘It is frankly astonishing that we cannot extradite Abu Qatada to face justice, and yet we have to extradite a pillar of the community to a brutally unfair system.
In opposition, both Coalition party leaders vowed to bring this unfair Extradition Treaty to an end, very much in response to the Daily Mail’s campaign to save Gary McKinnon.’
Gary McKinnon, 42, is wanted on charges of hacking into military computers
Gary is wanted on charges of hacking into military computers while searching for evidence of aliens.
Mr Tappin, a father-of-two who was director of Surrey-based Brooklands International Freight Services, was arrested at his home in 2007.
He is wanted in Texas on charges including conspiring to export defence articles without licence and moving money into the U.S. to promote an illegal activity.
His ordeal began when a client, Robert Gibson, said he was working with a firm in America to export batteries, worth around £5,000 each, to the Dutch car industry.
Mr Tappin liaised with a U.S. firm called Mercury Global Enterprise, which turned out to be a front for undercover U.S. customs agents to entrap those suspected of working to break the arms embargo to Iran.
Mr Tappin insists the words ‘Iran’ or ‘missiles’ were never mentioned in talks or emails with the firm.