The High Court has ordered the surrender of Zdenko Butor to Croatia under a European Arrest Warrant seeking enforcement of a two-year prison sentence. The order followed the court’s rejection of objections concerning the appeal process and prison conditions.
In a judgment delivered on 20 November 2023, Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo said the warrant sought Butor’s surrender in connection with 16 incidents between 25 January and 22 March 2004. The incidents were described in the warrant as one continuing criminal offence. The sentence was imposed on 8 June 2015, and the judgment said two years remained to be served.
The court found that incidents involving items taken from vehicles corresponded to theft under Irish law and unauthorised interference with a vehicle. For three incidents where no items were taken, the court found correspondence with attempted theft and unauthorised interference. These were correspondence findings for the surrender proceedings, not a new Irish trial of the underlying allegations.
Butor argued that surrender would breach section 45 of the European Arrest Warrant Act because he had not been told the date of the appeal hearing or produced at it, and neither he nor his lawyer attended. The judgment records that he had been present and represented at trial, and that his lawyer lodged the appeal. The court found that Butor and his lawyer had been served with the appeal outcome and concluded that his defence rights had been adequately protected. It dismissed the section 45 objection.
The court also rejected an objection based on the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment in Croatian prisons. It considered information and assurances from the issuing state, including that Butor would receive an individual assessment, medical care and at least four square metres of cell space where cells were shared. The judge found Butor had not established the required real risk to his rights.
An objection based on family and personal rights was not pursued at the hearing; the court said it had no evidential basis. A separate objection concerning arrangements for serving the sentence in Ireland was also not pursued. The court concluded surrender was not precluded under the Act and ordered surrender to Croatia under section 16.