A UK prison has been branded "inhumane" by Dutch judges who have refused to extradite a suspected drug smuggler.
The fugitive has been on the run for two years over alleged "narcotics trafficking", but authorities in the Netherlands fear there is "a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment" if he ends up jailed at HMP Liverpool.
The man, with links to Merseyside, was made the subject of a European Arrest Warrant at Liverpool Magistrates' Court in July 2017.
But concerns have since been raised over the conditions in the prison during a hearing at the Court of Amsterdam on Wednesday, as the Liverpool Echo reports.
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Making reference to a national report on prisons in the UK, the Dutch officials heard how inspectors found "some of the most disturbing prison conditions we have ever seen".
The report also noted “conditions which have no place in an advanced nation in the 21st century" - with HMP Liverpool found to be plagued by rats, flooded with drugs and where inmates were living in “squalid” conditons.
Suspected over heroin and cocaine offences committed on Merseyside, an application has been made to have the man brought back to the UK for questioning.
Although he is not named in court documents obtained by the Liverpool Echo, his links to the area mean legal professionals believe he would be held at the city's prison.
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That has prompted concerns over the conditions the man, who has been living in Spain while on the run, would be kept in should he be extradited.
A surprise inspection in September 2017 also found rising violence was leaving prisoners in fear of attack while drones attempting to drop contraband over the walls were so common that more than one device a week was recovered by staff.
Summing up the inspection, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, said: “The inspection team was highly experienced and could not recall having seen worse living conditions than those at HMP Liverpool.”
Those findings have led to the Dutch legal system fearing the prison - along with HMP Birmingham and HMP Bedford - are potential no-go zones for extradited prisoners.
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The British government strongly denies this.
A letter written by the Director General of Prisons to the judges overseeing Wednesday's case argued: "We do not accept those conditions anywhere in our prisons amount to inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to Article Three [of the] European Court of Human Rights."
Article Three of the ECHR states: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
The letter added that, in the aftermath of critical inspection reports of Liverpool, Bedford and Birmingham:
- Steps are being taken to reduce overcrowding
- £100m of funding has increased staffing levels across the prison network
- "Improved" suicide and self-harm training is being rolled out to staff
- "Comprehensive" action plans are in place at all three jails
- New governors with track records of turning struggling jails around have been appointed at all three
The fugitive's lawyer called on the extradition to be refused, with court documents reporting he argued that: "The UK judicial authorities state that British prisons are doing quite well, but the circumstances discussed in the reports are still the same as before even though more staff may have been appointed.
"The situation is still not good and the letter of 24 April 2019 [from the director general of prisons] gives no assurance that the situation is now different from before .
"Nor is there a guarantee that the person claimed will not be placed in HMP Bedford, HMP Birmingham or HMP Liverpool after surrender."
The judges appeared to agree, ruling there was a "real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment" should the suspect end up at any of those three jails.
They concluded: "In the opinion of the court, what has been put forward by the UK judicial authorities is too general and insufficient to assume that the detention conditions in the aforementioned prison institutions have (significantly) improved.
"In these circumstances, the expectation that the situation will improve rapidly is not sufficient to assume that the real risk of inhumane treatment has actually disappeared.
"The already established real danger of inhuman or degrading treatment in these establishments has not been eliminated.
"Furthermore, the UK judicial authorities have not provided any concrete data on the amount of individual cell space that the person claimed will be available after surrender and the other detention conditions.
"Nor can it be excluded that the person claimed will be detained after surrender in one of the aforementioned establishments, in particular in HMP Liverpool ...
"In view of the above, the court concludes that there is a real risk that, in the event of surrender to the United Kingdom, the person claimed will be subjected to inhumane or degrading treatment ..."
The court delayed its decision on the extradition "until it obtains additional information on the basis of which it can rule out the existence of such a hazard".
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