A HIGH-PROFILE extradition case involving a Briton facing charges in America concerning kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein’s regime has become mired in a judicial review.

Hampshire-based businessman John Irving was arrested in Britain last year on an extradition warrant. He had been charged in 2005, along with a group of other people accused of fixing the price of oil that was traded under the United Nations’ oil-for-food programme so that the Saddam regime was able to skim off funds.

An extradition hearing was due to have been held by now. But Irving’s lawyers are arguing that attorney-general guidelines on extradition procedures were not followed. The guidelines, which were issued after the 2003 Extradition Act, came into operation from the beginning of last year. They say that the Serious Fraud Office and Crown Prosecution Service must discuss the right jurisdiction for hearing a case before asking for extradition.

Irving was served with his extradition papers only last year – after the guidelines were in force. But the charges against him were filed in May the year before.

Andrew Preston of Irving’s solicitors, Clyde & Co, said: “If we are right on our judicial review, they will have to start from scratch.”

Irving is charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and “engage in prohibited financial transactions with Iraq”. At the time of the alleged offences, Irving was working with Bayoil – one of the companies at the centre of American investigations into abuses of the oil-for-food programme. He had previously been with Crown Commodities, part of the Alfa business empire headed by Russian oligarch Mikhail Friedman.

According to the charges, Iraqi officials distributed oil under the UN’s humanitarian programme to companies that then creamed off “surcharges” to front companies controlled by the Saddam government.

The charges accuse Irving, with others, of having “paid inflated commissions to sellers of Iraqi oil . . . with the knowledge and expectation that the sellers would use some portion of those inflated commissions to satisfy their illegal surcharge obligations to the government of Iraq”. The alleged offences took place between 2000 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Extradition arrangements between America and Britain have been hotly disputed since the law was changed in 2003. The most high-profile case involved the “NatWest Three”, who were extradited for their part in the Enron scandal.

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