British banker, British trial

ANOTHER VIEW

Lisa Leeson
Wednesday 19 July 1995 23:02 BST
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By the time you read this I shall be in Germany having my weekly one-hour visit to my husband, Nick, who is in jail there awaiting his extradition hearing to Singapore.

I should not, perhaps, expect it to worry you too much that he may soon be incarcerated in Changi jail for 14 years or more, or that I may only rarely be able to visit him. That will be my problem and I will have to learn to live with it - although I hope to God I don't have to.

But if he is sent to Singapore, there are two other things that will happen which should worry all of us.

First, the full story of what happened at Barings Bank will never come out - because the charges against him have been designed to secure a quick trial, a long sentence and as little examination of the broader picture as possible.

And I have doubts that he will get a fair trial - the Singapore authorities are notoriously repressive and the defence is often hampered in presenting its case.

This is why I have been campaigning to have him brought to Britain to stand trial. He is British, after all. It was here in Britain that most of the damage was done. The bank collapsed here and almost all of those hurt by the collapse are here.

What is more, many of the things Nick did were offences here. Even the Serious Fraud Office agrees that this is so. That is why he gave the SFO details of five charges that they could bring against him here, and a list of 82 questions which they could ask him in order to reveal his guilt on those five counts - and the whole background to the collapse of the bank. He has guaranteed them that he will plead guilty and take his punishment. There are no tricks. He knows he has done wrong.

It is surely unique in British legal history for a person to go to such lengths to get himself arrested and charged in his own country. But still the SFO will not even go and interview him. Why not?

The Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, says that he has no doubt Nick will get a fair trial in Singapore - I am left wondering what planet he is living on.

Then he hides behind the flimsy excuse that Nick and I were resident in Singapore, and therefore the case should be heard there. Residency has nothing to do with it.

The case could just as well be heard here, and then the whole story would come out. Maybe that is why the Chancellor is frightened.

The writer is the wife of Nick Leeson, the former Barings broker who is in Germany awaiting extradition to Singapore on charges relating to the collapse of the bank.

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