The High Court has referred questions about Brexit and European arrest warrants to the Court of Justice of the European Union in a case involving a respondent identified as R.O., who remains in custody. The referral leaves the decision on surrender unresolved; the High Court said it could not decide the remaining issues without the EU court’s answer.
The United Kingdom seeks R.O.’s surrender under two warrants for prosecution: one concerning alleged murder and arson, and another concerning alleged rape. The judgment records that the alleged offences carry possible life sentences. These are allegations, not findings of guilt.
R.O. objected to surrender on several grounds, including the effect of the UK’s planned withdrawal from the EU and the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment if imprisoned in Northern Ireland. In a November 2017 decision, the High Court found updated information about conditions at Maghaberry Prison raised concern about a real risk of such treatment given R.O.’s vulnerabilities. It sought further information from the UK authorities. The judgment says the court later received information about how the Northern Irish Prison Service would address those risks.
The Minister for Justice argued that Irish law required surrender and that the question should be assessed under the law as it stood at the time. R.O. argued that he could remain imprisoned in the UK after it left the EU, when the availability of EU-law rights and remedies could be uncertain. The judgment also records that the High Court had rejected R.O.’s other objections, leaving the Brexit and treatment issues undecided.
The questions sent to the EU court ask whether EU law requires Ireland to refuse surrender in all cases, in some cases depending on the circumstances, or never; what factors should guide that assessment; and whether a final decision should be postponed while the future legal arrangements are unclear.
The High Court requested the urgent preliminary ruling procedure, citing R.O.’s custody and the need for an answer before it could give final judgment. The document also sets out the High Court’s proposed answers. Those proposals are not a ruling by the Court of Justice and do not resolve R.O.’s case. The referral itself neither orders nor refuses surrender.