Subczak v Regional Court In Gliwice Poland

An extradition warrant need not state that an original sentence was suspended or identify the date on which it was activated where those details are not required by section 2 of the Extradition Act 2003. General evidence of poor prison conditions or threats from gang members in Polish prisons does not establish an Article 2 or Article 3 bar where it does not disturb the ordinary position. Family circumstances, including a possibly pregnant partner and dependent or ill parents, will not ordinarily make extradition incompatible with Article 8 where the sentence was lawfully imposed.

A Polish judge issued a European arrest warrant seeking the appellant’s extradition to serve a 10-month sentence for taking or stealing a motor car. The Westminster Magistrates’ Court ordered extradition after rejecting challenges based on the warrant’s contents, Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, and Article 8. The appellant renewed those grounds before the Administrative Court. The central issues were whether the warrant complied with section 2 of the Extradition Act 2003, whether prison conditions created a real Convention risk, and whether the appellant’s family circumstances barred extradition.

1. The appeal was dismissed. The District Judge’s conclusions were correct for the reasons given.

2. The warrant complied with section 2(6)(e) of the Extradition Act 2003. Section 2 did not require it to state that the sentence had originally been suspended or to identify the date on which the suspension was activated.

3. The Articles 2 and 3 challenge was based on familiar allegations concerning poor conditions in Polish prisons and threats from gang members. The court referred to Krolik v Judicial Authority of Poland [2012] EWHC 2357 (Admin), where such arguments were described as routinely deployed without success. Nothing placed before the District Judge displaced the ordinary position.

4. The Article 8 case was unmeritorious. A possibly pregnant girlfriend, an alcoholic father, and a partially amputated and dependent mother did not create an effective bar to removal to Poland to serve a sentence lawfully imposed by a Polish court.

• Westminster Magistrates’ Court: District Judge Evans ordered extradition on 4 December 2012.
• High Court (Administrative Court): The appeal was dismissed on 16 January 2013.