CANADA SAYS NO TO EXTRADITION

The Canadian Supreme court expressed its opposition against extradition to the United States of two of its citizens accused of murder. The Supreme Court judges decided that extradition could not go ahead without a guarantee from America that the two would not be sentenced to death in the country. Atif Ratay and Sebastian Burns were arrested in 1995 in British Colombia, a year after Ratay’s parents and sister had been found murdered in the nearby state of Washington. The two supposedly confessed to murdering the relatives with a baseball bat in order to get 400,000 dollars from their life insurance policy. Canada, which does not have the death penalty, had initially agreed to extradite the two to the United States without an agreement that the two would not face execution. The case was then put in front of the Supreme Court.