The law

The political offence exception

Many treaties bar extradition for political offences, and for ordinary charges brought to punish a person for political opinion, race, religion or nationality.

• Article 3 of the European Convention on Extradition bars extradition for political offences or connected offences, and where an ordinary charge is really aimed at punishing a person for race, religion, nationality or political opinion.¹
• The same article says taking or attempting to take the life of a head of state or a member of the family is not treated as a political offence.¹
• UK law contains a related bar for extraneous considerations, in section 13 for category 1 territories and section 81 for category 2 territories of the Extradition Act 2003.²
• Claims that a case is political also arise in practice. After a Thai appeals court ordered Viktor Bout's extradition in 2010, Russia's foreign minister called it a political decision, according to the Washington Post.³

Sources

1. Council of Europe, European Convention on Extradition (ETS No. 24), Paris, 13 December 1957 (13 December 1957)
2. legislation.gov.uk (The National Archives), Extradition Act 2003, contents (27 October 2026)
3. The Washington Post, Thai court orders extradition of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (21 August 2010)