The High Court has rejected a man’s objection to surrender to the United Kingdom, finding that evidence about prison conditions did not establish even a generalised risk of ill-treatment under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court said it would make an order for surrender under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Patrick McGrath on 7 February 2025, concerned a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant issued on 29 October 2024. The warrant sought the surrender of Cerban Dumitri, also identified in the judgment as Dumitri Cerban, following convictions in his absence at Isleworth Crown Court in 2021. He was convicted of 10 sexual offences and sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment on each, to run concurrently. The High Court said he had been told the trial could proceed in his absence, knew the trial date and was represented by his lawyer on that date. It found the requirements for a trial in absentia had been met and that there was no breach of defence rights.
Dumitri argued that conditions in UK prisons created a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment, including because of overcrowding and violence between prisoners. He relied on a Council of Europe committee report concerning prisons in the UK and annual monitoring reports on HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth. Those reports described overcrowding, double occupancy of some single cells and concerns about violence and infestations. The judgment said the prison in which he might be held was unknown.
The court applied the one-step assessment described by the Court of Justice of the European Union in Alchaster for objections to surrender under a UK warrant. It said it had to examine the individual circumstances without relying on the EU mutual-trust presumption, while taking account of the UK’s commitments under the ECHR and domestic protections.
The judge found that the general report did not show overcrowding at a level engaging Article 3, and that the evidence did not establish a generalised risk of violence. The two London prison reports concerned only one year and two institutions, with no evidence Dumitri would be detained in either. The court also said there was no evidence that the reports showed conditions falling below the cited minimum space levels or violence at a level engaging Article 3. It therefore rejected the grounds of objection and proposed to order surrender. The judgment does not state that the order had already been made.