[JURIST] The European Court of Human Rights [official website] has rejected a request by three British bankers wanted in the US in connection with the Enron scandal [JURIST news archive] to stay their extradition. David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew, and Giles Darby, formerly of NatWest [corporate website], will likely be extradited to the US in mid-July to face charges [indictment, PDF] that they aided Enron in an off-the-books partnership deal.

The UK High Court [UK Court Service website] rejected a bid to stay their extradition [JURIST report] in February, ruling that the extradition was proper because the charges had a substantial connection to events and people in the US. The House of Lords declined to hear an appeal [Times report] of the ruling last week. The case was the first to be evaluated under the UK's new Extradition Act [text], an agreement between the US and UK that uses a lower evidentiary burden in evaluating extradition requests. The ruling prompted criticism over the incongruency of US and UK extradition laws because the US requires the UK to provide probable cause in order for the US to extradite a suspect, whereas the UK only requires prima facie evidence to extradite a suspect. BBC News has more.