The High Court has ordered Tomasz Latek’s surrender to Poland to face prosecution for a single alleged fraud-type offence said to have been committed in 2011.
Mr Justice Paul Burns made the order under section 16(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 after dismissing Latek’s objection. The judgment, delivered on 15 January 2021, records that the warrant was issued on 16 March 2017 by a judge of the Regional Court in Ostrołęka, Poland. The High Court endorsed it in July 2017, and Latek was arrested and brought before the court on 4 November 2020.
Latek’s counsel relied on one ground: that alleged systemic deficiencies in Poland’s judicial system, particularly in judicial independence, precluded surrender. In an affidavit, Latek said he had worked in Ireland since 2011, had occasionally returned to Poland, and had never been questioned or dealt with by Polish authorities about the alleged offence. He expressed concern that the executive had undermined Poland’s criminal justice system. He did not provide reports from human rights organisations or an affidavit from a Polish lawyer.
The court applied European Court of Justice guidance that general concerns about judicial independence do not, by themselves, establish that an individual will face a real risk of an unfair trial. The court must make a specific assessment of the person’s circumstances, the offence and its factual context. The judgment also referred to the Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Minister for Justice and Equality v Celmer.
Justice Burns said the respondent had not produced evidence of any particular or specific risk or prejudice to him. The judge found no substantial grounds for believing that, considering Latek’s personal situation and the nature of the charge, surrender would expose him to a real risk of breach of his fair-trial rights. The objection was therefore dismissed.
The court was also satisfied that statutory grounds for refusing surrender did not arise, that the minimum gravity threshold was met, and that the alleged conduct corresponded to deception and/or use of a false instrument offences under Irish law. The judgment records that correspondence was not contested. The order directs surrender to Poland for prosecution; it makes no finding on whether the alleged offence occurred or on Latek’s guilt.