Keaton Slater: MP's extradition plea after hit-and-run death
An MP has written to the Latvian ambassador to the UK to seek the extradition of a man suspected of killing a 12-year-old boy in a hit-and-run. Keaton Slater died after being hit by a black BMW in Coventry while on his way home from school on 14 June last year. Police believe Dolars Aleksanders, 21, who is wanted on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, is in Latvia. Taiwo Owatemi, MP for Coventry North West, met with Keaton's parents on Tuesday to discuss road safety measures and the latest extradition efforts.
Louise and Clint Slater have been campaigning to have Mr Aleksanders extradited ever since he was named by police as a person of interest shortly after the crash last summer. Their petition calling for him to return to the UK has received nearly 70,000 signatures. Ms Owatemi, Labour, said she was hoping to meet with the Latvian ambassador Atis Lots to discuss an extradition agreement.
Ms Owatemi said that the extradition process was unlikely to take place at the moment because a treaty was never agreed between the two countries following Brexit. But she said given the circumstances of a boy's death, the process "shouldn't be a political issue".Otherwise, she said, it would send "the wrong message" over matters of justice and "that shouldn't be the case". She said authorities should be given the chance to engage with those suspected of offences. She said she was "pleading to the ambassador to work with us".
Mr and Mrs Slater met the MP at a road safety event where they launched another petition calling for more road calming measures in the Radford area of Coventry where their son was hit. Speaking at the meeting, Mrs Slater, said: "Nothing's happened since on road safety, so we just want to put a petition in place just to get more facilities to make people safer in this area. "Ever since my son passed away, people are still getting hurt from being hit by cars. "It's so frustrating because we don't want any family to go through what we went through - this nightmare for the rest of our lives."
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