The High Court ruled that Liam Campbell could be surrendered to Lithuania to face prosecution over alleged preparations to acquire firearms and explosives for the Real Irish Republican Army. The court rejected his objections but did not make the surrender order immediately: it said the order would be made when Campbell appeared in person on 13 July 2020.
The European Arrest Warrant alleges that Campbell and others arranged, between late 2006 and 2007, to obtain weapons and explosives in Lithuania and bring them to Ireland. The three Lithuanian offences are preparation for a crime, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms. These remain allegations; the Irish court was deciding whether surrender was permitted, not whether Campbell committed the offences.
Justice Donnelly found that the warrant met the statutory requirements for surrender. She held that the alleged conduct corresponded to Irish offences for the purposes of the relevant legal test and was based partly in Lithuania and partly in Ireland. She also rejected Campbell’s argument that Lithuania had not decided to charge and try him. The court accepted the statutory presumption that such a decision had been made and found that the evidence did not rebut it. Lithuanian authorities had said there was sufficient evidence to suspect Campbell and a high probability that an indictment would be drawn up if he were surrendered.
Campbell’s prison-conditions objection had focused on Lukiskes prison, which closed in July 2019. The judge found no evidence of a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in the prison where he might instead be held. She also rejected the fair-trial objection, which relied in part on evidence about the translation of documents in the Lithuanian trial of Campbell’s brother, Michael. The judge noted that Lithuania had transposed the relevant EU translation directive and said the evidence did not establish a real risk that Campbell would face an unfair trial.
The court also rejected Campbell’s claim that another surrender attempt would be oppressive or an abuse of process. The judge acknowledged that he had spent about four years in custody in Northern Ireland, including a period of prolonged isolation, and that Lithuania had not explained the delay in sending the second warrant to Ireland. She concluded that these circumstances, separately and together, did not meet the threshold for refusing surrender. His separate claim that surrender would disproportionately interfere with family life was also dismissed.
The judgment was delivered electronically on 26 June 2020. The judge said the surrender order would be made when Campbell appeared on 13 July. She gave the parties one week to submit or respond to any application for a certificate for leave to appeal.