Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons Terence McCormick and Patrick Maguire have not been extradited from the US to face questioning in relation to the murder of Captain Robert Nairac.

As a matter of long-standing policy and practice, the Government will neither confirm nor deny the existence of an extradition request made or received by this country before an arrest is made pursuant to such a request.

This is in order to prevent the subject of a request learning about it in advance, and giving them the opportunity to evade justice by leaving the jurisdiction or otherwise seeking to avoid arrest.

The Home Office does not initiate extradition requests. Extradition requests to countries outside the European Union are prepared by the relevant prosecuting authority and the police. They are then sent to the Home Office to seal and certify, and for transmission to the relevant State. Extradition may only be requested where a person is accused or convicted of an offence.