UK insists extradition of pastor Gilbert Deya on
A file photo taken on November 1, 2007 shows Kenyan preacher Gilbert Deya, 55, arriving at Westminster Magistrates Court, in central London. Mr Deya was initially arrested in December 2006. PHOTO | SHAUN CURRY | AFP
What you need to know:
- The extradition of the ‘miracle babies’ preacher was first ordered by then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in 2007.
LONDON, UK
Three weeks after a United Kingdom judge ruled it was “scandalous” that controversial pastor Gilbert Deya had not been extradited to Kenya, Britain’s Home Office has told the Nation the deportation is on course.
The extradition of the ‘miracle babies’ preacher was first ordered by then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in 2007.
HUMAN RIGHTS
But the so-called archbishop has continued to defy efforts to deport him to face trial, on the basis that his human rights would be under threat and he would face “cruel and inhuman conditions” if jailed in Kenya.
The delaying tactics led then-Home Secretary Theresa May, the current British Prime Minister, to send a judge, Lord David Ramsbotham, to Nairobi’s Kamiti Maximum Security Prison and he ruled that Mr Deya’s fears were unfounded.
DEPORT DATE
Three weeks ago, Lord Justice Gross said the Home Office had failed to get a grip on the deportation of Mr Deya and “the delay in this matter is truly alarming”.
Mr Deya was initially arrested in December 2006.
The Home Office spokeswoman would not give a date for the deportation but said it was expected to be “soon” and was now “an operational matter for the police”.
