The High Court has ordered Uldis Antons surrendered to Latvia under a European Arrest Warrant to serve a two-year prison sentence for fraud. Mr Justice David Keane delivered the judgment on 8 October 2024 after a hearing that concluded on 2 October.
The warrant, issued by Latvia’s Prosecutor General’s Office on 29 January 2024, sought Mr Antons’s surrender to serve a sentence imposed by Riga City Vidzeme Suburb Court on 14 October 2021. That sentence was suspended for two years, subject to probation conditions. The suspension was lifted on 9 May 2022 after he failed to register with the State Probation Service and inform it of his whereabouts.
Mr Antons challenged surrender on four grounds. He argued that the warrant lacked required details about the offence’s timing, location and penalties; that the Minister for Justice should also have sought authority for his arrest under a separate statutory procedure; that later amendments to Latvian law raised a concern under the prohibition on retrospective criminal punishment; and that the warrant did not provide the required information about the hearing at which the suspended sentence was activated in his absence.
The judge rejected each objection. He found that the warrant identified 32 phone-leasing contracts entered into between 26 April and 31 May 2015 and gave the Riga address where they were made. Additional information from the Latvian authority clarified that amendments dated 17 December 2020 and 7 April 2022 did not apply to the part of the law relevant to Mr Antons’s prosecution and conviction.
On the sentence activation, Mr Antons said in an affidavit that he had not known the suspension conditions, had received no probation-service correspondence and had been living in Ireland. The Latvian court documents supplied in response to the High Court’s request said notices were repeatedly sent to the Riga address he had given at sentencing. The judgment recorded that he was represented by a qualified advocate at the 2021 trial and sentence hearing, attended remotely, admitted guilt and acknowledged understanding the decision. The judge found that the 2022 activation concerned enforcement of the existing sentence, rather than the trial that imposed it, and did not require the warrant information Mr Antons sought under the European Arrest Warrant rules for trials in a person’s absence.
The judge concluded that the statutory requirements for surrender were met, including that at least four months of the sentence remained to be served. He ordered Mr Antons surrendered to a person authorised by Latvia to receive him.