The High Court ordered the surrender of a man to Poland to serve a prison sentence after rejecting his objections to the European arrest warrant.
In a judgment delivered on 23 October 2008, Mr Justice Michael Peart found that the warrant sufficiently described the offence and that the conduct corresponded to the Irish offence of assault causing harm. He made the surrender order under section 16(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The Polish authorities sought the man’s surrender to serve a sentence imposed after a conviction for an offence described in the judgment as a “beating”. The sentence had initially been suspended for four years. After a later conviction, the suspension was lifted by a court decision in November 2006, confirmed by the Circuit Court in Poznan the following month.
The warrant said the man and another person had beaten a victim by punching him in the face and head, causing contusions. It classified the offence under article 158(1) of the Polish Penal Code. The judgment records the alleged incident date as 20 June 2004, but separately says the conviction occurred on 14 March 2004. It does not resolve that date discrepancy.
The man argued that the warrant did not adequately specify the offence and its classification. The judge rejected that objection, finding the factual description and the classification as “beating” clear. He also noted that the man had been present at his trial.
The second objection was that the Polish offence did not correspond to an offence in Ireland. The man’s counsel argued that the warrant did not say the victim had not consented, which counsel said was required for assault causing harm. The applicant argued that the described conduct met the elements of that Irish offence.
The judge held that assault causing harm under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997 was distinct from simple assault under section 2. He concluded that lack of consent and a mental element were not express requirements of the section 3 offence. On the facts described in the warrant, he found correspondence established and said the minimum gravity requirement was met. Both objections failed, and surrender was ordered.