The High Court has ordered Liam Daly’s surrender to Germany for prosecution over an alleged attempted aggravated robbery in Berlin in 1994, rejecting his arguments that the long delay and his personal circumstances made surrender an abuse of process or incompatible with his rights.
In a judgment delivered on 22 May 2023, Mr Justice Kerida Naidoo made the order under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. The warrant seeks Daly’s surrender for prosecution. The court found the statutory conditions for surrender were met and said surrender was not precluded under the Act.
The alleged offence dates to 18 February 1994. The judgment recounts the allegation that Daly entered a Berlin snack bar carrying a broken chair leg and tried to strike the person behind the counter, intending to steal money. The alleged victim disarmed him. The judge noted that any prosecution would rely substantially on Daly’s admissions and the alleged victim’s evidence. These are allegations and evidence described in the judgment, not findings that Daly committed the offence.
Daly argued that the passage of time, the German authorities’ efforts to locate him, and the earlier refusal of extradition by a UK court made surrender abusive or unfair. The High Court said delay, even a very long delay, does not by itself justify refusing surrender under Irish law. It found Daly’s conduct after his release in Germany had materially contributed to the delay before the first extradition request in 2003. It also accepted that his exact whereabouts were not known to the German authorities before his arrest in January 2023.
The judge considered the 16 years between the first European Arrest Warrant in 2007 and Daly’s 2023 arrest, but concluded that period, alone or alongside the other grounds raised, did not establish abuse of process. The judgment states that the 2020 warrant replaced the 2007 warrant following a 2019 European Court of Justice decision.
Daly also relied on his mother’s cancer diagnosis and her age. The court expressed sympathy but found she did not depend on him for treatment or care. It ruled her condition did not justify refusing surrender on humanitarian or Article 8 grounds.
The court concluded that the objections, whether considered separately or together, did not provide a basis to refuse surrender. It ordered Daly’s surrender to the Federal Republic of Germany. The judgment concerns surrender for prosecution; it does not determine guilt.