Suspect in Iran Missile Plot to Appeal to EU Court

AP -- Lawyers for a retired British businessman accused of plotting to sell missile components to Iran said Tuesday that he will ask European Courts to rule on his appeal against being extradited to the United States.

Christopher Tappin, 64, faces charges in Texas over allegations that he offered in 2006 to sell specialized batteries for Hawk missiles for $25,000. He didn't know then that his contacts were undercover U.S. agents, not Iranians, U.S. authorities say. Two other men have been jailed in Texas in the case.

Tappin faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted in the United States, but he denies the charges and says he was the victim of a sting operation.

He has unsuccessfully fought his extradition in Britain, where a judge ruled against him last year and two High Court judges said Tuesday that he lacked the legal basis to take his fight to the U.K. Supreme Court.

Lawyer Karen Todner said Tappin will instead lodge an application with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, within a few days, and will ask the court to halt extradition proceedings until his case is heard.

Another Tappin lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, had argued that under European human rights legislation, Tappin should not be extradited because he had to care for his sick wife.

U.K. judges have ruled that the severity of the charges against Tappin outweighed his right to not be extradited, but Todner said that the British government had agreed not to begin extradition proceedings for 14 days, to give Tappin time to lodge the European appeal.

Tappin's case is the latest to expose trans-Atlantic tensions over the exchange of criminal suspects.

Lawyers complain that under "fast track" extradition procedures introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. is not required to offer substantial proof of an allegation when seeking to extradite a suspect from Britain.

But in October 2011, a judge-led review in the U.K. found that extradition agreements between the United States and Britain are fair and unbiased.