I know that is where Joseph Mengela went when fleeing Allied troops entering Germany. He wasn’t identified until after his death in 1979. Could we have tried him if we found him alive? More recently I heard of a notorious bank robber from Great Britain who was receiving refuge there.
What are the countries that a felon from The USA could still be free from facing justice in?
Where should I go to after I break out of this jail??
IANAL, but, IFRC the Brazilan consitution forbid the extradiction of the parent of a Brailian child to any country. So that is a dodge open to most anyone.
IANAL, but it’s my understanding that most countries that have good relations with the US, such as Brazil, wouldn’t want to create fuss over murderers, bank robbers, and the like.
I think you’ll end up back in the US if you committed a crime in the US and were caught in some other country, excepting countries where political circumstances are raised. Examples could be you’re facing capital punishment if extradited, or if the country where you were found in isn’t cozied up with the American government to begin with (say, Syria).
Most foreign countries aren’t going to want a felon wandering around their country, after all. Get arrested for something that is not a crime in the country you were caught in, however, and things may get sticky.
bugg, I think you do not understand that countries, much like the USA, have judicial guarantees and laws which determine what the government can and cannot do. It is not merely a matter of what they would ike to do at a given moment. Extraditions are governed by extradition treaties and the other applicable laws. If they can’t extradite a guy, then they can’t do it. For example, many countries have provisions saying they will not extradite anyone if he may be sentenced to death. Countries are rules by laws, not by what the ruler of the day wants to do.
I think that would be Ronnie Biggs, one of the great train robbers.
Yes, Ronnie Biggs was the man. He’s now back in a British prison, because he turned himself in. The reason he was able to live as a free man in Brazil for so long, however, wasn’t because Brazil wasn’t willing to cooperate with Britain. Brazil was in fact ready to let the British authorities take him home. Fortunately for Biggs, his girlfriend, a Brazilian citizen, had just become pregnant with his child. As the father of a Brazilian citizen, Biggs suddenly had constitutional protection.
That child, Michael, is now running the website linked to above, part of a campaign to get his father out of prison before he dies.
A State Department publication on my shelf lists two extradition treaties in force:
Treaty of extradition. Signed at Rio de Janeiro January 13, 1961; entered into force December 17, 1964.
15 UST 2093; TIAS 5691; 532 UNTS 177.
Additional protocol to the treaty of extradition. Signed at Rio de Janeiro June 18, 1962; entered into force December 17, 1964.
15 UST 2112; TIAS 5691; 523 UNTS 198.
Josef Mengele never committed any crimes against the US. Well, it wouldn’t have been America that tried him, anyway. Had he been captured while escaping Auschwitz (he traded papers with a soldier, I think, and was not identified), the Nuremberg tribunal might have dealt with him. If he’d been caught later in life, Israel would’ve probably handled it, as they did for a number of other Nazi fugitives like Eichmann.