The Supreme Court allowed Andrius Sciuka’s appeal against the postponement of his surrender to Lithuania under a European Arrest Warrant, finding that the Minister for Justice and Equality had not provided sufficient evidence to justify postponement on serious humanitarian grounds.
The appeal concerned section 18 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, which gives effect to Article 23(4) of the relevant EU Framework Decision. That provision allows surrender to be temporarily postponed in exceptional cases for serious humanitarian reasons, including where there are substantial grounds to believe surrender would manifestly endanger the person’s life or health.
The surrender order had been made on 18 January 2021 and was due to take effect on 12 February. Two days before that date, Lithuanian authorities sought a postponement because German authorities had cancelled all flights from Ireland to Germany during the Covid-19 pandemic. The High Court deferred the surrender, and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision.
In a judgment delivered on 13 December 2021, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said the cancellation of those flights, and the existence of the pandemic, did not by themselves establish that the humanitarian exception applied. There was no suggestion that Sciuka was ill or that transporting him by air posed an unacceptable health risk to others. Nor was there evidence that his transfer counted as non-essential travel under the restrictions then in place.
Hogan J said the Minister had not presented evidence about whether other practical air routes or arrangements could have enabled surrender within the remaining time. A letter from Lithuanian authorities cited the cancelled Ireland-Germany flights, but did not establish that suitable alternatives were unavailable. Mutual trust between EU member states could not make up for that evidential gap.
The judge noted that, if proper inquiry had shown air transport to Lithuania was not feasible in time, postponement might have been unavoidable. He said such circumstances might instead fall under the force majeure provision in section 16 of the 2003 Act, but left that question undecided. He also concluded that no EU law reference was necessary, as the appeal concerned the application of established law to the evidence.
The Supreme Court held that the humanitarian exception had not been made out and allowed Sciuka’s appeal. The judgment does not state a new surrender date or make a further order about the mechanics of his transfer.