The High Court has ordered the surrender of Zdenek Kaleja to the Czech Republic under a European arrest warrant, so he can serve a 12-month prison sentence for driving while disqualified.
Mr Justice Paul Burns made the order under section 16(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 in a judgment delivered on 18 March 2021. The warrant, issued by a court in Tachov and dated 21 September 2018, sought enforcement of a sentence imposed on 9 September 2018 for a driving offence committed on 7 August 2018.
The warrant was endorsed by the High Court on 2 November 2020. Mr Kaleja was arrested and brought before the court on 10 February 2021. The judge was satisfied he was the person named in the warrant, that the statutory minimum-gravity requirement was met, and that no statutory bar to surrender applied.
The judge found the conduct described in the warrant corresponded to driving without a licence under Irish law. He said other acts and alleged offences mentioned in the warrant were background only: surrender was sought solely to enforce the sentence for one road traffic offence. He was satisfied there was no intention to prosecute or detain Mr Kaleja for other offences in breach of Article 27 of the EU Framework Decision. The warrant stated that Mr Kaleja had appeared in person at the hearing that led to the sentence, so no issue arose under section 45 of the Act.
Mr Kaleja objected that he faced a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment because of prison conditions in the Czech Republic. In an affidavit, he described overcrowding and spending 23 hours a day in his cell during earlier imprisonment in Plzeň and Horní Slavkov prisons. He also said Kynšperk nad Ohří prison was overcrowded, though he was able to work there. His counsel said that imprisonment took place in 2016 and relied on a 2019 report by the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, which raised concerns about cell space but described conditions generally as satisfactory.
The judge ruled that the evidence did not meet the first stage of the required assessment: objective, reliable, specific and up-to-date information showing deficiencies in detention conditions. The report did not address the prisons identified by Mr Kaleja, and the court had no evidence of a general system in which detainees had less than three square metres of personal space. His concern about Covid-19 infection and death rates was unsupported by evidence. The judge concluded that the presumption Czechia would comply with fundamental rights had not been rebutted and dismissed the objections to surrender.
The order authorises surrender to the Czech Republic to enforce the 12-month sentence. The judgment does not order surrender for the other conduct mentioned in the warrant.