Supreme Court finds no real risk to Thomas O'Connor's rights if extradited

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

The Supreme Court could see no basis for finding a real risk that Thomas O'Connor's rights would not be fully respected if surrendered to the UK, Chief Justice Mr Justice Frank Clarke said in a ruling on 9 October 2018.

The court said the Court of Justice of the EU had effectively decided his Brexit-related objection through its September ruling in the RO case. A merely theoretical possibility of rights being infringed was insufficient to override the obligation to surrender someone under a European Arrest Warrant.

The Supreme Court had referred his case to the European court in February 2018, asking whether surrender must be refused where an EU citizen would remain imprisoned in the UK after Brexit.

His lawyers received a final opportunity to persuade the European court to reconsider RO, although the Supreme Court considered that highly unlikely. It said he was not entitled to a significant postponement unless he made immediate and material progress.

The matter was adjourned for four weeks. Unless the prospect of reopening the European issues remained alive then, the Supreme Court would consider whether to uphold the extradition order.

O'Connor remained on bail and was wanted in the UK to serve a four-and-a-half-year sentence connected with a Stg£5m tax fraud. He was sentenced in January 2007 following a six-week trial in London. The report said he also faced charges of absconding and breaching his bail in England.

Following his arrest in Ireland under a European Arrest Warrant, the High Court ordered his extradition in December 2014. The Court of Appeal subsequently dismissed his appeal, and he appealed to the Supreme Court.