The High Court has ordered Rafal Damian Fiszer to be surrendered to Poland to serve a three-year prison sentence imposed in August 2008 for ten offences.
The central issue was whether Irish law prohibited surrender because Fiszer had not attended every stage of his Polish trial.
The European arrest warrant initially appeared to indicate that he had appeared in person. Additional information later clarified that Fiszer attended numerous trial dates between March 2007 and April 2008, but was absent for hearings in June and August 2008 and when the verdict was pronounced on 25 August 2008.
Fiszer told the High Court that he left Poland in May 2008, initially travelling to Belfast. He accepted that a lawyer had been appointed to represent him but said that after leaving Poland he did not remain in contact and the lawyer had no further instructions.
Ms Justice Donnelly focused on section 45 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, which protects people convicted following proceedings they did not attend unless specified safeguards apply.
The judge distinguished between knowing the exact date and place of a hearing and being aware that a trial was scheduled and ongoing. Fiszer had attended the trial repeatedly over more than a year and knew proceedings were continuing when he left Poland.
His court-appointed lawyer had represented him throughout those proceedings and continued to attend after Fiszer left. The judge found that Fiszer had originally given the lawyer a mandate and had never positively withdrawn it. His failure to keep in contact did not amount to revoking those instructions.
The court concluded that Fiszer deliberately left Poland while his trial was ongoing and that the statutory safeguards for trial in absence were satisfied.
After also finding that the other requirements of the European arrest warrant legislation were met, the High Court ordered his surrender to Poland.