The High Court ordered the surrender of Vera Dunkova to the Czech Republic under two European arrest warrants, after finding that her family and health circumstances did not make surrender disproportionate.
Mr Justice Michael Peart delivered the ruling on 28 January 2011. The warrants seek her return to serve the remaining parts of two sentences: two years and six months for an offence committed in 1995, with two years, two months and 22 days remaining; and one year and six months for an offence committed in 1994.
The court said further information supplied by the Czech issuing authority established that the 1995 offence corresponded to theft under Irish law. It found that the 1994 offence corresponded to attempted robbery. Dunkova withdrew her objections on correspondence for both warrants. The court also found that minimum gravity was met and that no undertaking was required because neither conviction was imposed in absentia.
Her only objection pursued at the hearing concerned family rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution. In affidavits, Dunkova and family members described her heart condition and diabetes, her husband’s serious health problems and reliance on her, and their children’s integration into life in Ireland. They also recounted intimidation and violence that the family said they experienced before leaving the Czech Republic in 2003. Dunkova said she feared she would not receive adequate care in prison, but the court noted there was no evidence she would be unable to obtain medication or treatment there.
Her counsel argued that surrender would be disproportionate given the time since the offences, their nature, the family’s roots in Ireland and the medical circumstances. He also relied on her having committed no further offences in Ireland and argued that she had rehabilitated herself.
The judge accepted that both Dunkova and her husband were unwell, that the children regarded Ireland as home, and that separation would affect their ability to visit her. He said, however, that illness and the additional burden on family members were not exceptional circumstances preventing surrender. State services could assist her husband if needed.
The court recognised that Dunkova appeared to have rehabilitated herself since coming to Ireland, but said that did not prevent the Czech Republic from seeking punishment for the offences. It concluded that the issuing state’s interest in enforcing its sentences outweighed the family-rights objection and ordered surrender under both warrants.