The High Court has ordered Sławomir Schweissing’s surrender to Poland to serve the remainder of a six-year prison sentence.
The European arrest warrant was issued by the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz in May 2020. Schweissing had been sentenced in June 2016, with five years and 11 months remaining to be served. The warrant categorised the underlying offence as “murder or grievous bodily injury”, meaning the usual requirement to identify an equivalent Irish offence did not have to be established.
Schweissing was arrested in Ireland in November 2020. He did not contest that his defence rights in the Polish proceedings had been respected. Although he had missed some hearings, the High Court found that he had been properly notified and had unequivocally waived his right to attend those dates.
His main objection concerned Ireland’s failure to implement EU Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA. That measure would provide a mechanism through which a sentence imposed in one EU state could, in appropriate circumstances, be served in another. A Polish court had indicated in February 2021 that Schweissing’s circumstances could justify his serving the balance of his sentence in Ireland if Ireland consented and the necessary legal requirements were met.
However, Ireland had not transposed the framework decision into domestic law. Mr Justice Burns held that an individual could not rely on an unimplemented framework decision to create a new ground for refusing execution of a European arrest warrant.
Schweissing also relied on his family circumstances. He said he had lived in Ireland for 15 years, was married and had three children aged between three and eight, and had been their main carer.
The court held that those circumstances were not truly exceptional. Adding the State’s failure to implement the framework decision did not change that conclusion.
His objection was dismissed and surrender to Poland was ordered.