Naoufal Fassih’s extradition challenge referred to EU court

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Supreme Court referred Naoufal Fassih’s challenge over consent to further prosecution to the Court of Justice of the European Union, reported on 18 February 2022.

Fassih is serving an 18-year prison sentence in the Netherlands after convictions including attempted murder. His challenge concerns a Dutch request for Irish consent to prosecute him further on charges outside the European Arrest Warrants used for his surrender.

The Supreme Court unanimously referred questions about whether the earlier surrender order prevents Fassih from relying on later European court rulings concerning Dutch prosecutors’ authority to issue warrants. It also asked whether national procedural rules could prevent reliance on those rulings and proposed that the European court consider an expedited hearing.