Fan's extradition hearing begins

Garry Mann was convicted of rioting during a football tournament

An extradition hearing against an England fan convicted of involvement in a football riot in Portugal has begun.

Former firefighter Garry Mann, 51, of Faversham, Kent, who has always denied rioting, is fighting a Portuguese attempt to extradite him.

He received a two-year jail term for football-related violence in 2004.

His lawyers told City of Westminster Magistrates' Court the fast-track legal procedure in Portugal amounted to a "travesty" of a criminal trial.

Mr Mann travelled to Portugal to support the England football team in Euro 2004.

At the opening of the extradition hearing, Anthony Metzer, counsel for Mr Mann, said he was arrested in the Algarve resort of Albufeira on June 15, 2004 and then tried the following day under a "summary procedure" alongside 10 English defendants .

Conviction challenged

There were only two interpreters for them and only one lawyer available for the defence, he said.

Mr Metzer said Mr Mann had not taken any role in the trial and would have had difficulties understanding the court hearing.

He said: "He was convicted in Portugal in circumstances that we say amount to a travesty of a criminal trial.

"Having been convicted he was then, and I use the word as neutrally as I can, misled by the applicant as to the implication of the sentence and its effect in the context of a trial."

He said Mann left Portugal with the full agreement of authorities and returned to the UK on the agreement that his sentence would be suspended if he agreed not to go back to Portugal.

A judge at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court ruled in 2005 that Mann had not been given a fair trial.

Mr Metzer told the court that an appeal against the conviction to the Albufeira Court had been rejected but the conviction was being challenged in the European Court of Human Rights.

The hearing was adjourned until 29 July.