The High Court has ordered the surrender of Mohamed Huida to Spain under a European Arrest Warrant, rejecting his objection that he was not the person sought by Spanish authorities.
In a judgment delivered on 21 March 2022, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said photographic and fingerprint evidence satisfied her that the respondent before the court was the person in respect of whom the warrant had been issued. The order was made under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.
The warrant seeks Huida’s surrender for prosecution over two alleged offences in Ceuta: causing injuries and assaulting a police officer. According to the warrant, the first incident occurred near Poblado Marinero at 6am on 16 August 2018. It alleges that Huida attacked Abdeslam Hmam, who suffered a broken septum and required medical treatment. The warrant also alleges that, after his arrest, Huida resisted violently and threatened an officer. These are allegations set out in the Spanish warrant, not findings in this Irish surrender judgment.
The respondent’s sole remaining objection was that he was Rafik Ben Salah, had never used the name Mohamed Huida and had been wrongly identified. His affidavit said he had never been arrested in Ceuta for the alleged assault and raised the possibility that Spanish police had merged his details with another person’s. Other grounds in his notice of objection, concerning the warrant’s details and notification of trial, were withdrawn at the hearing on 4 March 2022.
The court considered an arrest-hearing transcript, a photograph attached to a Schengen Information System alert and fingerprint evidence. The judgment records that Sergeant James Kirwan had identified the respondent at the August 2021 arrest hearing as Mohamed Huida, also known as Rafik Ben Sala, and that the judge at that hearing had been satisfied as to his identity. In March 2022, Justice Biggs compared the respondent with the alert photograph in court and said she was satisfied they were the same person.
Detective Garda Kane testified that fingerprints taken from the respondent in prison in January 2022 were compared with prints on the alert. A fingerprint expert concluded that both sets were made by the same person. The court also received material from the Spanish issuing authority linking the names Mohamed Huida and Abdelkader Soulyman.
Justice Biggs found that surrender was not precluded under the relevant provisions of the 2003 Act. She also addressed the warrant’s offence classifications, finding that the descriptions related to two separate events and that corresponding offences existed under Irish law. The order permits surrender to Spain; the judgment does not decide whether the respondent committed the alleged offences.