The High Court has ordered David Okojie’s surrender to Italy to serve the remainder of a custodial sentence, rejecting his objections based on a trial held in his absence, delay and his family and private life in Ireland.
In a judgment delivered on 3 June 2025, Mr Justice Patrick McGrath made an order under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The application was brought by the Minister for Justice on foot of a European Arrest Warrant issued on 9 December 2024. The sentence to be served is one year, four months and one day in prison. The warrant also refers to a fine of €24,000.
The Italian proceedings concern three drug offences involving alleged illegal importation, sale and supply in 2003. The original judgment was delivered by the Ordinary Court of Turin in 2006. The Court of Appeal in Turin upheld it in September 2022, and the judgment became final in March 2023 after the Court of Cassation declared an appeal inadmissible. The Irish court recorded that a pardon reduced the sentence.
Okojie argued that the warrant was unclear about his absence from the Italian trials and that he might not receive a genuine opportunity for a retrial or appeal if surrendered. His former Italian lawyer wrote that the defence had exhausted the available remedies. In response to a further request from the Irish court, the issuing authority said the warrant’s guarantees remained “unchanged and fully valid”. Those guarantees state that, after surrender, Okojie will be served with the decision, told of his right to a retrial or appeal in which he can participate and present fresh evidence, and given 30 days to request it.
Justice McGrath said the former lawyer’s letter did not address that specific guarantee. He found no basis to doubt the issuing authority’s confirmation and held that the guarantee met the requirements of section 45.
The judge acknowledged that there was no explanation for the period from 2006 to 2021. He said delay alone could not bar surrender. Okojie’s evidence was that he had lived in Ireland since 2004 and had a brother here; his wife and children lived in the United Kingdom, and the court noted they did not appear dependent on him. The judge found no evidence that surrender would cause an exceptional and oppressive disruption to family or private life, and rejected the objection under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and section 37 of the Act.
Okojie did not pursue objections concerning the issuing authority’s independence or uncertainty about the sentence. The court’s decision orders surrender; it does not determine the underlying Italian offences anew.