The High Court has ordered the surrender of István Szántó to Hungary to serve a four-year-and-three-month prison sentence for a theft-type offence.
Hungarian authorities issued a European arrest warrant in March 2020. It was endorsed by the High Court in October and Szántó was arrested in Ireland on 20 December 2020.
Szántó challenged surrender on two main grounds. He argued that the warrant was insufficiently clear about the judgment and sentence to be enforced. He also claimed surrender would breach his rights because of his medical conditions, his Roma ethnicity and prison conditions in Hungary.
The court rejected the first argument. The warrant identified a first-instance judgment from October 2017 and an appeal judgment from March 2018. Additional information confirmed that Szántó had been present at the first trial and represented by a state-appointed lawyer at the appeal. The court was satisfied that the sentence and decisions were sufficiently clear.
The more substantial challenge concerned conditions after surrender. Szántó produced medical evidence concerning heart disease, hypertension and depression, along with reports alleging discrimination against Roma people and poor prison healthcare and overcrowding.
Hungarian authorities responded with assurances specific to his case. They said he would receive at least three square metres of personal space excluding sanitary facilities, that prison occupancy had fallen to about 96%, and that discrimination based on ethnicity was prohibited. They also said specialist treatment could be provided through civilian healthcare services where necessary.
Mr Justice Burns accepted that Hungarian prisons had previously experienced serious overcrowding but found that genuine measures had been taken to address the problem. He also found that Szántó’s medical conditions, while significant, were not shown to make surrender incompatible with Ireland’s human-rights obligations.
The court therefore dismissed his objections and ordered his surrender to Hungary under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.