THE NatWest Three will be taken into the custody of US marshals and the FBI in Britain by July 17, just 28 days after the House of Lords refused to hear their petition.

According to Douglas McNabb, an American lawyer specialising in extradition, they will then be handcuffed and chained to each other at the waist and ankles.

The men will then board an aircraft specially designed for the transport of prisoners and will be flown either to New York or to Houston, Texas, depending on the availability of landing slots.

American law stipulates that the men must be taken before a federal judge for a bail hearing on the next business day after their arrival.

They are unlikely to be given bail, as the judge will treat them as fugitives because they contested the extradition, according to Mr McNabb, who testified about the US legal process during the extradition hearings for the three bankers.

“The only reason that they will be in the US is because they were brought kicking and screaming over the Atlantic,” Mr McNabb said.

If the men arrive in New York, they will be sent a week later to a holding station in Oklahoma City. They may then wait a month before the marshals find an aircraft to transport them to Houston.

In the meantime, they will not be allowed any visits from friends or family and will have difficulties placing international collect calls back to Britain.

In Houston, the men will be held at the city’s federal prison. Other inmates at the downtown facility include Lea Fastow, the wife of Andrew Fastow. Mr Fastow, Enron’s former chief financial officer, is alleged to have worked closely with the men to defraud the now-collapsed energy giant.

The men will be exempt from US laws requiring defendants to face trial within 70 days of their first appearance in court, as prosecutors will argue that they face a complex case.

Mr McNabb said that the trial will be unusual as more than two dozen witnesses must fly into Houston from abroad, while many of the documents in the case are in Britain.

Delays could mean that the three men will be held at the prison for more than a year before their trial begins.

They will find themselves each sharing cells with two other prisoners, with no television or internet access. They will spend almost every hour of the day locked up in their cell.

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