The High Court has ordered the surrender of Vojtech Gabor to the Czech Republic to serve seven years and 18 days remaining on an eight-year prison sentence.
The sentence was imposed in May 2005 and upheld on appeal that October. After clarification from the Czech authorities, the court was satisfied that it covered four offences: attempted fraud, two fraud offences and obstructing the execution of an official decision.
The final offence arose from Gabor driving a BMW in Prerov in January 2000 while subject to a driving ban. He argued that there was no equivalent Irish offence because the Czech ban had been imposed by a police traffic authority rather than a court.
Mr Justice Paul Burns rejected that argument. He held that the underlying conduct corresponded to driving without an effective licence under Irish law. The difference between the Czech and Irish bodies empowered to impose driving restrictions did not prevent the offences from corresponding for European arrest warrant purposes.
Gabor also challenged a 2001 conviction for the driving offence because he had not attended that trial. Additional information from the Czech authorities said he had been personally summoned, warned that the case could proceed without him and later personally served with the decision and informed of his appeal rights. The High Court found the statutory safeguards for proceedings in a person’s absence had been met.
A further objection concerned Czech prison conditions. Gabor argued that surrender could expose him to inhuman or degrading treatment and discriminatory treatment because of his Roma ethnicity.
The Czech authorities assured the court that he would have at least four square metres of personal space, satisfactory sanitary, medical, food and exercise conditions, and would not be discriminated against by prison staff or state authorities on grounds of ethnicity. The court accepted those assurances.
All objections were dismissed and surrender was ordered under the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.