The High Court has ordered the surrender of a respondent to the Czech Republic after finding that assurances from the issuing judicial authority met the requirement for a retrial following his conviction in absentia.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Michael Peart, followed a Supreme Court decision setting aside an earlier surrender order and remitting the matter for the High Court to determine whether section 45 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 had been satisfied. The Supreme Court had identified uncertainty over whether evidence from the original trial might simply be read to the respondent at a retrial, leaving him only an opportunity to comment.
The issuing judicial authority provided further information about the proposed retrial. It said witnesses who gave evidence at the first trial would be called again. If a witness were unavailable, the earlier statement could be read only in limited circumstances and, as the authority explained by reference to section 211 of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure, only with the agreement of both the Public Prosecutor and the accused.
The respondent’s counsel, Robert Barron SC, argued that a Czech lawyer’s separate letter left open the possibility that a court could admit a missing witness’s earlier evidence without the respondent’s consent. Anthony Collins SC, for the applicant, said the issuing authority’s clarification resolved the uncertainty and that the lawyer’s letter did not address section 211 directly.
Justice Peart accepted the issuing authority’s explanation. He found that evidence from an unavailable witness could be read at a retrial only if the respondent agreed, and only where the court considered the evidence necessary. He concluded that this consent requirement was sufficient to ensure the retrial would be a trial de novo for the purposes of section 45.
The judge was satisfied that the undertaking met section 45 and guaranteed the respondent a retrial to which he was entitled under the applicable Framework Decision. The Supreme Court had already decided that the other requirements under section 16 were met. The High Court therefore ordered surrender to the Czech Republic.