Law & order

Europe is safer when we join forces to beat crime

Everyone remembers where they were on 7 July 2005 when four deadly bombs ripped through the heart of London. Not everyone remembers where they were two weeks later when four more bomb attacks failed: three in the London Underground at Shepherd’s Bush, the Oval and Warren Street; the fourth on a bus in Shoreditch. In each case, thankfully, the detonator ignited but the explosives did not. Deadly attacks thwarted by pure luck.

The biggest police manhunt in our history followed. Two men were arrested five days later in Birmingham. Two more were arrested seven days later in London. But a fifth member of the gang, Hussain Osman, fled to Europe. Using EU criminal justice measures, our police and security forces worked with our EU partners to track him down to his brother-in-law’s flat in Rome. He was arrested by 40 armed Italian police officers and taken into custody. Using the EU European arrest warrant procedure, we sought his return to face trial in London.