The High Court ordered Salman Shahzad’s surrender to the United Kingdom to serve an eight-year prison sentence for conspiracy to defraud, after dismissing his objections under the European Arrest Warrant Act.
In a judgment delivered on 8 February 2021, Mr Justice Paul Burns found that the requirements for surrender were met. The warrant sought Shahzad’s surrender to serve the full sentence imposed in the UK. The court made an order under section 16(1) of the 2003 Act.
Shahzad objected that the sentence had been imposed in his absence and that the protections in section 45 had not been satisfied. The UK’s initial warrant said he had been summoned in person in April 2013 and informed of the trial date. The High Court was later told that reference was an error relating to a separate matter.
Further information from the UK said Shahzad attended two earlier trials, which were aborted, and was represented by lawyers when a new trial date was set. He did not attend a pre-trial hearing on 28 February 2014, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. His solicitor submitted that Shahzad had not been personally notified of the final trial date and had not specifically instructed his lawyers to represent him at that trial.
Justice Burns found that Shahzad knew he was involved in an ongoing trial process and had mandated his lawyers to act for him through the trial and sentence. The judge said there was no evidence that he had withdrawn that mandate. He rejected the section 45 objection, finding that Shahzad had effectively waived his right to attend and that his defence rights were adequately protected.
The second objection concerned a recommendation for deportation recorded in the enforceable judgment. Shahzad argued that, following the UK’s departure from the EU, he would not have the protection of the EU Court of Justice in relation to such a process. The judge said the court had not been given evidence supporting a real risk that Shahzad’s fundamental rights would be breached or that the relevant EU framework would not be applied. He dismissed this objection as well.
The judgment records that Shahzad was arrested before the end of the Brexit transition period, so the European arrest warrant framework continued to apply to the case. The court’s order concerns surrender to serve the UK sentence; the judgment does not determine any subsequent deportation process.