A bill before Parliament could pass a proposed European Union arrest warrant to extradite British citizens for what critics call "thought crimes" but the EU calls broadcasting xenophobic or racist remarks, the London Telegraph is reporting.
EU ministers are also negotiating a directive to set forth "a common set of offenses to criminalize xenophobia and racism," two of 32 crimes under which the EU can serve arrest warrants "without the existing safeguard of dual criminality," the newspaper says.
Critics fear British citizens could be extradited even if they were foolish enough to make xenophobic or racist statements on Internet chatrooms in other countries. The Telegraph says the British government has determined that those kinds of "offenses" happening in Britain itself will not lead to extradition, but they'll let the courts decide where the "crime" was committed.
British law currently has no criminal statute against such offenses as Holocaust denial, though Germany and Austria have such laws. The EU arrest warrant proposition is aimed at replacing a ponderous extradition system, but critics argue that this only further criminalized mere thought, as opposed to outright acts. Current British law requires a proven risk of fomenting disorder before a "thought crime" becomes prosecutable.
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