The High Court has refused an application to surrender Pawel Motyl to Poland for prosecution over an alleged forgery-type offence, finding that surrender in the circumstances would amount to an abuse of process.
In a judgment delivered on 14 February 2022, Mr Justice Paul Burns said the alleged offence dated to 23 June 2006. Poland sought Mr Motyl’s surrender under a European arrest warrant issued on 4 July 2018. The court was satisfied that the alleged conduct corresponded to offences under Irish law, including forgery or deception, and that the statutory minimum gravity requirement was met.
Mr Motyl’s principal objection was that the offence could have been included in earlier Polish warrants. He had been the subject of five previous European arrest warrants, none of which referred to this allegation, although it predated the offences in those warrants. The court said the current offence was not covered by the earlier warrants, so issue estoppel did not arise.
The judgment recounts Mr Motyl’s evidence that an earlier surrender application was refused in 2010, while a later application led to his surrender to Poland for one offence. He said he pleaded guilty to that offence, received a suspended sentence, and returned to Ireland in May 2010. Three further warrants were refused in 2016. The judgment also records medical reports describing recurring depression, suicide attempts and hospital admissions. A 2021 report said the proceedings were likely to worsen his mental state.
Justice Burns noted that the Polish judicial authority gave no reason for the delay in seeking surrender for this offence beyond saying the warrant followed an application by a prosecutor. No explanation was provided for its omission from earlier warrants. The Irish authorities had informed Poland in 2017 of the outcome of earlier applications, including reference to Mr Motyl’s mental health.
The judge concluded that the combined effect of the repeated applications, unexplained delay, the non-violent nature of the alleged offence and the evidence about Mr Motyl’s mental health made this one of the rare cases where surrender would amount to an abuse of process. He emphasised that the finding did not question the bona fides of either the Polish authorities in seeking surrender or the Irish authorities in bringing the application. The judgment refuses surrender; it does not determine the underlying criminal allegation.