The British parliament has held a heated debate on an extradition treaty that will send three British bankers to face Enron-related charges in the United States.
That treaty will legally compel David Bermingham, Giles Darby and Gary Mulgrew to travel to Texas for trial on fraud allegations. The charges involve the collapse of the huge U.S. energy company in 2001.
Lawmakers can not prevent the extradition.
Prime Minister Tony Blair is defending the treaty, which speeds extraditions to the U.S. Opposition members of palriament have called the treaty "unfair and imbalanced" because it allows U.S. officials to extradite British citizens without presenting evidence of criminal actions.
The three British bankers are accused of defrauding their employer, National Westminster Bank, of millions of dollars in the sale of an Enron partnership. They deny breaking any laws.
Also Wednesday, a senior British banker who was questioned by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation as a potential witness in the case wasfound dead in a park near his London home.
Neil Coulbeck, an executive with NatWest parent company Royal Bank of Scotland, is thought to have committed suicide