The High Court has ordered the surrender of Janusz Mazurkiewicz to Poland, where he is sought for prosecution over an alleged robbery. The court found that the conduct described in the European arrest warrant corresponded to robbery under Irish law.
The warrant alleges that on 23 November 2004, Mazurkiewicz acted with two named people, held a man’s arms and went through his pockets. It says they stole his wallet, containing about PLN 400, and a case with an Alcatel mobile phone valued at PLN 650. The warrant gives the total value as PLN 1,090.
The surrender application was brought by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The warrant was issued in Poland on 25 October 2007 and endorsed for execution by the High Court on 9 July 2008. Mazurkiewicz was arrested on 15 August 2008 and remanded while the application was pending.
The respondent did not dispute that he was the person named in the warrant. His objection concerned whether the alleged conduct matched an offence in Ireland. The Minister’s counsel argued that the facts could amount to assault and robbery. For the respondent, John Byrne BL argued that the warrant did not set out all the elements of robbery, including dishonesty and an intention to deprive the owner of the property.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said the warrant’s use of “stole”, read alongside its account of the alleged violence and taking of property, provided enough context to establish correspondence with robbery under section 14 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. He said the absence of the specific words “dishonestly” and “appropriates” from the warrant did not prevent that conclusion.
The judge did not decide whether the facts also corresponded to assault, saying that question did not need to be resolved. He found no other statutory ground preventing surrender and ordered it under section 16(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The order was for surrender; the judgment did not determine whether Mazurkiewicz committed the alleged offence.