The High Court has refused an application to surrender Andrzek Gozdyra to Poland, where he was sought for prosecution over alleged sexual offences in Bristol in 2006. The court found that surrender was prohibited by section 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. It did not decide the respondent’s other objections.
The European Arrest Warrant, issued in 2010, alleged five rapes involving three women. The allegations described four incidents involving Anna Turek and Renata Prawda between February and early October 2006, and an incident involving Katarzyna Wojcik on the night of 14–15 October 2006. These remain allegations; the Irish court was considering surrender for prosecution, not guilt.
Poland told the court that its investigation began in 2009 after it received materials from the UK Crown Prosecution Service. It cited Polish law allowing prosecution of Polish citizens for offences committed abroad, subject to a condition that the conduct is also an offence where it took place. The Polish authority said the three complainants were Polish citizens.
Section 44 bars surrender where an alleged offence took place outside the issuing state and the conduct would not constitute an offence under Irish law by virtue of having occurred outside Ireland. The court considered whether Ireland could exercise jurisdiction over comparable conduct in the circumstances described.
The Minister relied on section 3(3) of the Criminal Law Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act 2019. That provision applies to specified conduct in a “Convention state” where, among other requirements, the person is an Irish citizen or ordinarily resident in Ireland and the conduct would constitute a relevant offence here.
The court noted that the United Kingdom had signed the Istanbul Convention but had not ratified, accepted or approved it. The Minister conceded that the UK could not be treated as a convention state. The court concluded that the requirements of section 3(3) could not be met and, as a consequence, section 44 prohibited surrender.
The respondent had also raised objections concerning an earlier Irish decision, fair-trial rights and the independence of the Polish judiciary. The High Court expressly left those issues undecided. It ordered that the surrender application be refused.