Protect has joined 40 legal experts, campaigners, academics and NGOs in signing an open letter calling for the Croatian Justice Minister, Mr. Ivan Malenica, to halt the extradition of British whistleblower Jonathan Taylor.
Jonathan exposed a series of multi-million pound bribes in the oil industry while working for one of Monaco’s major employers – oil firm SBM Offshore in 2013. He co-operated with law enforcement authorities in seven different jurisdictions – including the UK- leading to fines against SBM Offshore of US$827 million.
He has now been in Croatia for nearly 10 months appealing against a request to extradite him to Monaco, after being arrested while holidaying in Croatia with his family. Now the Supreme Court of Croatia has issued a judgement confirming his extradition with Mr Malenica now making the final decision as to whether the extradition should go ahead.
Protect and others have urged to reject the extradition as the Supreme Court have recognised Mr. Taylor’s status as a whistleblower. The open letter states:
‘In light of Croatia’s duties and obligations under the EU Directive on the protection of whistleblowers and the clearly retaliatory nature of the Monegasque request to extradite Mr. Taylor for questioning, we humbly submit that the decision by the Minister should be to reject it.’
Monaco, to date, has failed to prosecute anyone involved in the corruption and bribes Jonathan Taylor blew the whistle on, and instead have targeted a whistleblower – Jonathan Taylor – and pursued him through the courts.
Read the letter to Croatian Justice Minister Mr. Ivan Malenica