The High Court dismissed Cyril Mc Guinness’s objection to surrender under a Belgian European Arrest Warrant and ordered his surrender to a person authorised by Belgium to receive him. The ruling, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 15 July 2011, concerned execution of a sentence imposed in Belgium, not a trial of the underlying offences in Ireland.
Belgium issued the warrant on 1 September 2010. The judgment says the High Court endorsed it for execution on 26 November 2010 and that Mc Guinness was arrested at Navan District Court House on 31 January 2011. He did not consent to surrender. According to the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Belgium sought his return to serve a seven-year sentence imposed by the High Court of Ghent on 18 January 2010 following convictions for 21 offences. The warrant described the offences as involving “burglary, housebreaking or false keys” and being lead persons of a criminal organisation.
Mc Guinness argued that surrender would not comply with the EU Framework Decision because he had no entitlement to legal aid under a statutory scheme. His objection focused on the Attorney General’s Scheme, which he said was administrative and non-statutory and did not meet the State’s obligations. His solicitor’s affidavit said he lacked the means to fund his defence and referred to two earlier cases in which solicitors had pursued judicial review proceedings over payment under the scheme. Those were assertions supporting the objection, not findings made in this judgment.
The Minister argued that Article 11.2 of the Framework Decision provided for legal representation according to national law but did not require the State to provide legal aid. The Minister also relied on the Supreme Court’s decision in Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform v Olsson. The High Court held that Olsson’s interpretation of Article 11.2 bound it: the provision did not impose an obligation to provide legal aid. It also rejected the claim that such an obligation arose under Article 47 of the EU Charter or the European Convention on Human Rights.
The court found the warrant and other statutory requirements satisfied, apart from the contested legal-aid objection. It dismissed that objection and, being otherwise satisfied under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, ordered surrender. The judgment does not state when the surrender would take place.