UK court agrees to extradite disabled woman

Twelve years ago, Liz Prosser fled America with her then six-year-old daughter Tamara to avoid them being separated.

Lawyers for Mrs Prosser, 59, who lives near Tregaron in West Wales, say she can now barely travel short distances.

Her lawyers argued at the High Court in London that a combination of severe physical and psychiatric illnesses meant extradition would cause her "extreme pain" and put her at high risk of suicide.

Removing Mrs Prosser – who requires a stairlift, bathlift and specialist wheelchair – would be unjust and oppressive and "an affront to fundamental humanitarian principles".

Her alleged offences were "relatively minor" and unlikely to result in custodial sentences.

Two judges ruled there was a risk of suicide and that travel to the US would cause pain that would have to be treated with drugs including morphine. However, the risk of suicide fell "significantly short" of the high legal threshold that would have breached her human rights.

Sir Anthony May, President of the Queen's Bench Division, and Mr Justice Foskett jointly ruled extradition would not be disproportionate.

They said assurances had been given that Mrs Prosser would receive appropriate treatment.

Mrs Prosser was given 28 days to decide whether to attempt to take her case to the British Supreme Court.

The court heard that Mrs Prosser suffers from a combination of conditions in which "stress is an important component".

They include Crohn's disease, acute fibromyalgia, shingles, severe depression and possible traumatic stress disorder.

Mrs Prosser wrote in a newspaper article a year ago:"I always thought extradition was for terrorist suspects or major criminals, not people like me."

She is wanted for trial in Pennsylvania for abducting her daughter from her husband in March 1998, at a time when the child should have been in his care. She says she carried out the abduction because she believed she was about to be arrested and would be deported without her daughter, now aged 18.