ON April 13 the vast majority of British MEPs voted in the European Parliament to welcome in a measure called "Corpus Juris", which will set up a unified European system of criminal justice.

This will do away with our ancient rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury.

A frightening new figure, the European Public Prosecutor, will have the right to instruct national judges to have someone arrested, held for up to six months (renewable) with no public hearing pending investigation and be transported to any other EU country while awaiting trial.

Guilt will be decided by case-hardened professionals, not a jury of our peers, nor even by lay magistrates.

Leaders of both main political parties have declared publicly they will oppose this Corpus Juris, but when it comes to the vote MEPs may not reflect this.

If this is so, all MEPs who vote for the measure must be publicly disowned and expelled.

Torquil Dick-Erikson,

9 Via Bevignani,

00162 Rome, Italy.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.