She is now preparing for a courtroom battle to stop herself from being handed over to her accusers.
If she is sent to America, tried and convicted of the offence, she could spend three years in prison.
The case has sparked outrage from campaigners, including Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty, who said it was "yet another terrifying reminder of the dangers of lopsided instant extradition without evidence being tested in a UK court".
Mrs Clark, a US citizen, says she was stunned when Metropolitan Police officers dressed in plain clothes turned up at her family's flat on July 29, arrested her and served her with the warrant.
She said: "It scared the living daylights out me. Never in my life, since I left John, have I been so afraid."
According to Mrs Clark, sending her to America to stand trial would have a devastating impact on her children, who would be left to fend for themselves in Britain.
She said: "Me and my children won't be together. I'm their home and their mainstay. If they were all off and had their own families, it would be different. But they are completely reliant on me.
"I'm OK during the day but at night I wake up shaking. I just want them to throw this out."
Her fate will be decided after a hearing at London's Westminster Magistrates Court in November, at which legal experts could be flown from the US to help fight her corner.
The case follows disputes over attempts by America to secure the extradition of Gary McKinnon, the British computer hacker, and Christopher Tappin, the retired businessman and golf club president accused of illegal arms deals.
Last week the Government announced a review of current extradition arrangements, which will examine both the US-UK treaty and the controversial European Arrest Warrants system.
The move comes after The Sunday Telegraph highlighted concerns about the way extradition works in Britain.
On Feb 9, 1995, Mrs Clark, a former aerobics trainer and model, fled the home in New Mexico she shared with her then husband, John Clark – a day after he told her he wanted to separate "due to marital discord".
She took the couple's three children with her.
Two days later she flew to California to stay with a friend. In June 1995, state prosecutors charged her with "custodial interference". The marriage was dissolved in Feb 1997 with both parents retaining legal custody.
Mrs Clark moved to Britain in 1998 to begin a new life with the children, who are also US citizens - Chandler, now 23, Hayden, 20, and Rebekah, 17.
She has recently separated from her second husband and is now retraining to become an English language teacher.
Meanwhile Mr Clark was pursuing the case through the US courts. He also launched a publicity campaign, declaring in one television interview: "I'm not going to give up on making sure she pays the price for what she did."
The charge of custodial interference was dropped in May 2004, only for a new, identical accusation to be raised the following year.
US prosecutors claim they discovered in July 2008 that Mrs Clark was living Britain.
They approached their UK counterparts to seek her return to face trial, but were told that custodial interference was not a sufficiently serious offence to justify her extradition.
A few month later, a grand jury indicted her for the more serious offence of international parental kidnapping, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Mrs Clark was placed on the FBI's "most wanted" list. Underneath her photograph, her three children are pictured, with a claim that they are "still missing" and the word "victim" printed next to each picture.
The children had contacted the Santa Fe police department in New Mexico to inform them they were not missing, and were subsequently removed from a national register of missing children.
But the FBI immediately ordered that they be re-entered, this time as missing "endangered adults".
Last night Mrs Clark said of her arrest: "After those guys came, I think John knows where I live. Now I'm really shaken up.
"My children are articulate, proud young people. But if I have to go back, well, it's going to undermine them so much. There will be so many things to sort out. I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back."
In her battle against extradition she is being represented by Mike Evans from Kaim Todner, the same law firm defending McKinnon and Tappin.
Her lawyers told a court hearing on Friday that they were considering a raft of arguments to block the extradition.
These include the impact on her children and a claim that the prosecution is being carried out "in bad faith" following pressure from her former husband.
They will also argue that too much time has passed since the alleged crime. Under US "statute of limitations" rules, suspects for many kinds of crime can only be prosecuted within five years of the offence.
Miss Chakrabarti said: "That a mother with happy children in their late teens and twenties can be shipped off on abduction charges years after the alleged offence shows how vulnerable to abuse ordinary Britons have been left by our rotten extradition system.
"How would the politicians responsible for this legislation feel if they were yanked off to some international court without the opportunity to test the evidence against them?"
Mrs Clark's US attorney has accused the American government of a "complete abuse of power".
David Foster said: "The entire basis for the extradition is improper. The federal government apparently tried to extradite her based on the state charges, and the UK said 'no'.
"In spite, the federal government decided to indict Mrs Clark on a charge of international kidnapping – based on what was alleged to have happened in 1995. This is despite the fact that New Mexico doesn't want to extradite her.
"This is a malicious prosecution by the US government. They are harassing her and her kids."
Chandler is waiting to find out if he will get funding to study philosophy at King's College in London.
He said: "It's very difficult on a personal level. I got the grades and was told I'd get into the best philosophy university outside Oxbridge. Even if the student funding goes through, will I be starting Fresher's Week in a few weeks time? I don't think so."
Rebekah said she was "really scared" when her mother was suddenly arrested.
"I was upstairs and I could here everything that was going on. I thought I was going to have a heart attack," she said.
Hayden faces losing his place at the London School of Economics, where he has just completed his first year of a law degree. The boy says the three siblings will have to make a home for themselves in England if their mother is sent to America.
"If mum's extradited, what's going to happen to us? We will have to look after Rebekah. What are we going to do about housing?" added Hayden.
All three insist they do not want to be reunited with their father.
Mr Clark has led a public campaign against his former wife, including an appearance on the TV talk show Dr Phil. Earlier this year he claimed in a TV interview: "She's taken 15 years of my life."
His current wife, Jeanette, has also appeared on television to attack Mrs Clark, declaring: "She should be the one in prison. She's put him in prison for 15 years."
But Rebekah, who is studying for A-levels, said: "I just think it's absolutely ridiculous. There are murderers all over the world and my mum is wanted by the FBI. It's the biggest joke I've heard in my life."
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Mother who fled failed marriage faces extradition battle - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
