The High Court has ordered the surrender of Jonathan Collopy to Bulgaria to serve a one-year-and-six-month prison sentence imposed for a drink-driving offence committed in 2016.
The European arrest warrant was issued in October 2018 by a prosecutor in Nessebar. Collopy was arrested in Ireland in November 2020 after the warrant had been endorsed by the High Court.
The underlying offence occurred on 23 May 2016. Bulgarian authorities stated that a blood sample taken about 41 minutes after driving showed an alcohol concentration equivalent to 241mg per 100ml of blood. The High Court found that the offence corresponded with drink-driving under Irish law.
Collopy had previously been arrested on the warrant while travelling through France in June 2019. A French court refused surrender that November because Bulgarian authorities had failed to provide additional information. He then returned to Ireland.
In the Irish proceedings, Collopy relied principally on prison conditions in Bulgaria. Reports obtained on his behalf described historic overcrowding, concerns about medical services, bedbugs and inter-prisoner violence at Sofia Prison. He also referred to a back condition and a previous period of imprisonment in Bulgaria in 2013.
The Bulgarian authorities subsequently confirmed that Collopy would serve his sentence in Sofia Prison, where accommodation was below full capacity on a four-square-metre-per-prisoner basis. They also stated that he would be covered by the Bulgarian state health insurance system regardless of his foreign citizenship and could access external medical treatment where necessary.
Mr Justice Burns accepted that prison medical facilities had attracted criticism. However, after considering the official assurances and independent material, he was not satisfied that Collopy faced a real risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights or Article 4 of the EU Charter.
His objection was dismissed and surrender to Bulgaria was ordered.