The High Court has ordered Piotr Wlodarczyk surrendered to Poland under two European arrest warrants, after rejecting his objections to surrender. The decision, delivered by Mr Justice Edwards on 19 May 2011, concerns warrants issued in 2008 and 2009. The court was asked to make orders under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The first warrant sought Wlodarczyk for trial over an alleged 2006 lawnmower theft in Klodzko and to serve an outstanding two-year sentence for five other offences. The second sought him to serve an outstanding sentence of one year and three months for two offences: theft of money in 2005 and threats against the complainant intended to make her withdraw a report about that theft. The warrants described the sentences as conditionally suspended and later activated.
Wlodarczyk argued that he had left Poland to find work, not to evade justice. He said he had provided an Irish correspondence address to the Klodzko court in February 2007. The Irish court found that he knew a trial was pending and had not contacted the authorities until after its scheduled date. It also found that he knew the conditions of his suspended sentences, failed to comply with them and knew the likely consequences. The court concluded that he had fled Poland within the meaning of section 10(d).
He also objected that Polish prison conditions posed a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment, citing overcrowding, sanitation and concerns about medical care for his depression and asthma. The court said his prison-condition evidence was not sufficiently current or cogent to establish a real risk. It considered information from Poland, including national occupancy data updated to 13 May 2011, which showed 98.7% occupancy nationally. The court was not satisfied that surrender would breach the European Convention on Human Rights or the Constitution.
On correspondence, the court found that the alleged lawnmower theft could correspond to theft under Irish law, relying on the warrant’s reference to an intent to appropriate and additional information describing the lawnmower as stolen. It also found correspondence for the money theft and for the threats, including intimidation intended to obstruct an investigation or the course of justice. It rejected objections concerning the warrant’s marked offence categories and alleged deficiencies in its particulars.
The court therefore said it was disposed to make section 16 orders on both warrants and surrender Wlodarczyk to Poland. The judgment records no separate execution date or further conditions on surrender.