ECJ: EU states may have grounds to deny extradition requests from Poland News
© WikiMedia (Cédric Puisney)
ECJ: EU states may have grounds to deny extradition requests from Poland

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] said [text, PDF] Wednesday that the judicial authority considering postponement of a European arrest warrant must assess whether there exists “a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment within the meaning of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union [text, PDF],” a decision that could impact Poland’s ability to extradite from other EU member states.

Extradition requests between EU states are typically granted automatically. The defendant in the case is an Irish man who is wanted in Poland for drug trafficking-related offenses. Poland issued an arrest warrant and subsequently requested extradition from Ireland to prosecute the man in Poland. The man challenged the request, saying Poland’s judicial independence is at risk, which may cause him to be unfairly prosecuted. Ireland’s High Court denied the extradition request, saying there exists real deficiencies in Poland’s judicial system, which would jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

The ECJ agreed with the Irish court, saying that where there is a real risk of inhumane or degrading treatment by the judicial authority in the country requesting extradition, the person’s fundamental right to a fair trial is at risk. The court stated two criteria for assessing whether such deficiencies exist:

First, the executing judicial authority must find that there is a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in the issuing Member State on account, inter alia, of systemic deficiencies. Second, that authority must ascertain that there are substantial grounds for believing that the individual concerned by the European arrest warrant will be exposed to such a risk.

The case will be sent back to the High Court for review.

Poland has passed several laws to limit judicial independence. The most recent was the infringement procedure [JURIST report], which forces nearly one-third of the Supreme Court judges to retire, including the First President Judge.