The Supreme Court has dismissed Andrius Sciuka’s appeal against an order postponing his surrender to Lithuania under a European arrest warrant. The Court held that the flight cancellations and tight timeframe described in the Lithuanian authority’s letter justified postponement on humanitarian grounds under section 18 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The warrant, issued in February 2017, sought Sciuka’s surrender to serve a seven-year prison sentence, of which 2 years, 8 months and 12 days were said to remain. The sentence related to an armed robbery committed by a group of which he was a member and illegal possession of firearms.
The High Court ordered surrender on 18 January 2021. On 10 February, it postponed surrender after Lithuania sought more time. A letter from the issuing judicial authority said the transfer had been scheduled for 5 February at Dublin Airport, but Germany had cancelled flights from Ireland and the UK because of the COVID-19 situation. It said a travel agency had advised there was no possibility of taking Sciuka over until 19 February, and requested an extension to 1 April.
Sciuka argued that the application concerned transport difficulties, not humanitarian grounds, and that there was no evidence surrender itself would pose a health risk. He also argued that other routes might have been available. The Minister submitted that pandemic-related restrictions aimed at protecting life and health could constitute serious humanitarian grounds.
The Supreme Court adopted the approach in an earlier High Court decision that humanitarian grounds can concern the requested person or another person. It said flight cancellations on the normal transit route to Lithuania were capable of amounting to such grounds. For postponement to be warranted, the Court said, it must be reasonably justified in the circumstances and proportionate; it expressed doubt that postponement had to be the “only effective option.”
The Court accepted, on balance, the essential information in Lithuania’s letter, applying the mutual trust and confidence underlying the European arrest warrant system. It found no exceptionally weighty reason to reject that information. Although other commercial routes might theoretically have existed, the Court said there was no evidence Lithuania could organise an alternative surrender within the extremely tight timeframe.
The appeal concerned the postponement order, not whether the surrender warrant should be executed. The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, leaving the High Court’s postponement in place. The High Court had remanded Sciuka in custody pending a further listing on 26 March 2021, while allowing either side to apply if surrender could happen earlier. The Supreme Court noted that time spent in custody in Ireland would be deducted from his Lithuanian sentence.