The High Court has consented to a Czech request concerning an additional five months of imprisonment for Zdenek Kaleja, who had already been surrendered from Ireland to the Czech Republic to serve a 10-month sentence for a driving-related offence.
In a judgment delivered on 17 January 2022, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs made an order under section 22(7) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The request, made in writing by a Czech judicial authority, sought consent to enforce a 15-month sentence imposed by the District Court in Plzeň-město on 15 October 2018. The Czech authority said that sentence incorporated the earlier 10-month sentence and that Mr Kaleja would have five months left to serve if consent were granted.
The court said the request concerned two driving-related offences, committed on 16 February and 15 April 2018. It found that the information supplied, including a response from the Czech authority, resolved an apparent uncertainty about the relationship between the 15-month sentence and the earlier sentence. The court dismissed Mr Kaleja’s objection that the number of offences and the request’s scope were unclear.
Mr Kaleja also objected that he had not known about the October 2018 trial. The Czech authority told the High Court that police served the summons on him on 7 September 2018. It also said he was not represented by a lawyer at trial and that, after surrender, he would have a right to appeal within eight days of service of the judgment. The High Court held that the guaranteed appeal met the requirements of section 45 and dismissed that objection.
The judge said Mr Kaleja’s right to be heard had been respected. His solicitor’s affidavit stated that he was content not to be brought before the High Court by video link for the section 22 hearing.
On abuse of process, Mr Kaleja relied on the earlier refusal of surrender in 2019 and the time taken before the Czech authority made its consent request. The earlier refusal concerned the form of the warrant: it had been presented as seeking prosecution, although it related to an already imposed sentence, and the required part of the warrant had not been completed. The judge noted that the Czech authority was informed of the refusal in February 2020 and made the current request in September 2021.
The High Court found no significant or egregious delay and no evidence of actual unfairness or prejudice. It dismissed the abuse-of-process objection and ordered consent under section 22(7). The order permits the Czech Republic to proceed with the sentence request; it does not itself determine any appeal against the Czech judgment.