The High Court has ordered the surrender of Remigijus Jančauskas to Lithuania to face prosecution for two alleged offences after rejecting concerns about prison conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The European arrest warrant was issued in July 2020 by the Lithuanian Prosecutor General’s Office. Jančauskas was arrested in Ireland in March 2021.
The warrant concerned two alleged offences. The High Court found that the first corresponded to assault causing harm under Irish law. The second alleged that Jančauskas, acting with another person, took a bicycle belonging to K.G. from an unlocked common area. The court held that this corresponded to the Irish offence of unauthorised taking of a bicycle.
Jančauskas did not pursue several other potential objections to surrender. His principal argument was that detention in Lithuania would expose him to a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, particularly because of Covid-19 infection levels in Lithuanian prisons.
The High Court sought further information. Lithuania’s Prison Department said remand prisoners were housed in small cells rather than large dormitories and would receive at least three square metres of living space. It also outlined measures for preventing violence and providing primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare.
The department expressly assured the court that Jančauskas would receive at least three square metres of space and that appropriate measures would be taken if his safety was threatened.
Mr Justice Burns gave significant weight to that information. He said the pandemic had presented difficulties for many countries but fluctuating Covid-19 figures did not, on the evidence before him, justify refusing surrender. Exceptional conditions might justify postponement in another case, but that was distinct from refusing surrender altogether.
The court found no substantial grounds for believing Jančauskas faced a real risk of prohibited treatment and ordered his surrender to Lithuania.