Haircare entrepreneur Graham Webb has joined the campaign for
changes to the extradition laws that forced Kent golf boss
Christopher Tappin to the US for trial.

Sevenoaks-based Mr Webb, founder of the Graham Webb chain of
salons and an international products company, was so distressed by
the case that he got in touch with Mr Tappin's distraught wife
Elaine.

Mr Tappin, president of the Kent Golf Society, is in solitary
confinement in an American jail after pleas for bail were rejected.
He is accused of being involved in illegal exports to Iran.

Before his extradition, the 65-year-old and his supporters
appealed for his right to a trial in the UK and that the
extradition law with the US was unfair.

He famously claimed before he flew to the US that a terrorist
had more rights than him.

Mr Tappin, from Orpington, was extradited under a treaty between
the US and Britain, which means American prosecutors can demand a
suspect is handed over without the evidence ever being tested in a
British court.

Mr Webb, former chairman of the Kent branch of the
Institute of Directors and now a motivational speaker, said he did
not know Mr Tappin but felt he had to do something.

He said: "I cannot believe that we have been willing to
extradite a fellow Brit - and hitherto respected business person
who has no history of lack of integrity or crime - to the USA
without any evidence proven before a judge or court.

"What his ill wife and family are going through is unthinkable,
not to mention this 65 year old businessperson."

Mrs Tappin has asked Mr Webb and others to sign an e-petition.

She wrote to Mr Webb: "This law needs to be reformed - too late
for Chris - but let's try and stop any other Brit being carted
off."