The Supreme Court allowed two appeals by Anthony Abimbola and ordered his immediate release, ruling that Irish extradition proceedings based on a German request were invalid after the law authorising that process ceased to apply to Germany.
Mr Justice Fennelly delivered the judgment on 28 November 2007. Germany had sought Abimbola’s extradition to serve a five-and-a-half-year sentence imposed after his conviction for rape by the Regional Court of Dortmund in October 2000.
Germany’s request was sent to Ireland in September 2003 under Part II of the Extradition Act 1965. After Germany was designated under the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, a November 2004 order revoked the application of Part II to Germany. The Minister for Justice nevertheless certified receipt of the extradition request in June 2006, and the High Court issued an arrest warrant the following day. Abimbola was arrested in July 2006. The High Court later ordered his surrender to Germany.
The Supreme Court held that section 8(7) of the 1965 Act meant Part II ceased to apply to Germany when the revocation took effect. The provision contained no exception preserving requests already received, so no further steps could be taken under that Part. The Court said the European Union Framework Decision’s transitional rule for requests received before 1 January 2004 did not require Ireland to keep using its former extradition procedures. It could not be used to interpret Irish law in a way that contradicted the clear wording of section 8(7).
The State also argued that provisions of the Interpretation Acts preserved the proceedings after the revocation. The Court rejected that argument, finding that the international obligation to Germany did not arise from the revoked order and that the statutory provisions did not preserve the extradition process in these circumstances.
The Court concluded that the arrest and subsequent procedures relating to the proposed surrender were invalid and that Abimbola’s detention was unlawful. It allowed both appeals and ordered his immediate release. The judgment did not prevent Germany from issuing a European arrest warrant or Ireland from executing one under the 2003 Act, as amended.
The Court did not decide Abimbola’s separate argument that Germany had not made a legally valid request until further information was supplied. It said that issue was unnecessary to resolve in light of the outcome.