The High Court has ordered the surrender of a man to Poland to serve a one-year-and-six-month cumulative sentence, after rejecting his objections to the surrender application.
In a judgment delivered on 24 May 2023, Ms Justice Stack ruled that the Minister for Justice had established correspondence between all three offences underlying the Polish sentence and offences under Irish law. The sentence was imposed by the Local Court in Bydgoszcz on 4 December 2017.
The respondent argued that the first offence did not correspond to an Irish offence, which he said prevented surrender because the sentence covered all three offences. The Polish authorities described that offence as failing to return to prison after being allowed to leave to work without an escort. The judge found the Polish arrangement sufficiently similar to Ireland’s temporary-release regime, and said the conduct corresponded to failing to return to prison after temporary release. The other two offences were not disputed for correspondence purposes.
The respondent also argued that surrender was barred because he had not been present at the hearing that led to the 2017 sentence. The court examined whether he had been notified of the proceedings, including disputed claims about two addresses in Bydgoszcz.
The judge found that the Polish authorities had not produced documentary evidence showing that the respondent had supplied the second address, 5/52 Czackiego, for service. She accepted his evidence that he had not provided that address and concluded that notices sent there did not establish that he had waived his right to attend.
The judge reached a different conclusion about 55/20 Powstańców Wielkopolskich. The respondent had acknowledged giving that address to police when arrested, though he disputed giving it as a future address. The court found that it was the only address he had provided for service. It also found that he had been told in writing of his obligation to provide and update an address, that proceedings could continue in his absence, and that he knew he was the subject of criminal proceedings.
The court concluded that his failure to update the address before moving to Ireland in February 2017 amounted to an unequivocal waiver of his right to be notified of the hearings and to attend them. Both objections failed. The order was made under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The judgment records the surrender order; it does not state that the surrender had already taken place.