The High Court has ordered Svetlana Alehnovits’s surrender to Estonia under a European Arrest Warrant, concluding that further information from Estonian authorities resolved objections about the sentence and her right to appeal.
In a judgment delivered on 4 March 2022, Mr Justice Caroline Biggs made the order under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The warrant seeks enforcement of a sentence imposed by Harju County Court on 30 March 2015, with one year, one month and 27 days remaining to be served.
The court said the warrant initially lacked clarity about the offences covered by the aggregate sentence. Information obtained from Estonia described an arson conviction in 2013, followed by a theft conviction in 2015. The 2015 court imposed four months for theft and added the unserved part of a previously imposed 10-month sentence for arson, producing an aggregate term of one year and two months. Three days in custody were credited, leaving one year, one month and 27 days to serve.
A 2016 order activating the sentence contained references to a remaining term of one year, one month and 29 days. The issuing judicial authority told the High Court that this was a typographical error and confirmed that the correct term was one year, one month and 27 days. The respondent accepted that the sentence length was sufficiently clear. The court also received confirmation that a separate 40-day sentence imposed in 2006 had already been served and was not included in the 2015 aggregate sentence.
The respondent had argued that surrender was barred by section 11 because of uncertainty about the offences and sentence. Justice Biggs found the warrant and further information gave the court enough detail to carry out its statutory functions and informed the respondent why surrender was sought. She dismissed that objection.
A separate objection concerned section 45 and the respondent’s absence when the sentence was activated in March 2016. She had been present when the 2010-month sentence was imposed in 2013 and when the aggregate sentence was imposed in 2015, but was absent from the 2016 proceeding. Estonian authorities assured the court that, after surrender, she would be served with the 2016 order and informed of her right to seek a retrial or appeal, with the case merits and fresh evidence open to review. They said she would have 15 days to appeal. The High Court held that this resolved the section 45 issue and dismissed that objection.
The court was satisfied that no other statutory bar to surrender applied, that the minimum gravity threshold was met and that the offences corresponded to offences under Irish law, including theft and arson. It therefore ordered surrender to the Republic of Estonia.