Kwietniewski v Circuit Court in Tarnobrzeg Poland
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | LORD JUSTICE LATHAM,MR JUSTICE DAVIS |
| Judgment Date | 26 November 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | [2008] EWHC 3121 (Admin) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Date | 26 November 2008 |
| Docket Number | CO/8582/2008 |
[2008] EWHC 3121 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
DIVISIONAL COURT
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Lord Justice Latham
Mr Justice Davis
CO/8582/2008
Mr J Jones (instructed by Kaim Todner) appeared on behalf of the Claimant
Miss A Mannion (instructed by the CPS) appeared on behalf of the Defendant
This is a statutory appeal brought under section 26 of the Extradition Act 2003 in relation to a decision by Senior District Judge Workman, who ordered the appellant's extradition on 4th September 2008 pursuant to an European Arrest Warrant upon which the appellant had been arrested on 18th August 2008. The warrant identifies the offences for which he is wanted in Poland as being two offences of drug dealing (it should be said not drug dealing in substantial quantities).
The District Judge gave an extempore judgment in the following terms:
“I am satisfied that this is a valid extradition warrants. The conduct complained of is an extraditable offence. There are no bars raised to extradition. I have been asked to consider the incompatibility with the defendant's Convention rights. I have considered Article 8. I am informed that the defendant has been in the United Kingdom since October 2004, he is planning to marry the fiancée he has known for two years. It has been said that there have been threats to his life, by a group involved in drug dealing in Poland. I am satisfied [that] extradition is proportionate in these circumstances and must take priority over his Article 8 rights. The infringement is very limited and the defendant must surrender to the Polish judicial authority. The defence raised Articles 2 and 3. I understand the threats emanate not from any officials in Poland but those dealing in drugs.”
The matter comes before us on the basis, again, of an assertion that the appellant's Article 3 rights will be breached were he to be returned, but it is put before us today on a different basis from the basis upon which it was put before the District Judge. It is said that the medical history of this young man shows that he has, in the past, displayed suicidal tendencies when depressed. There is a report which has been obtained, and which we have considered today, indicating that he has depression now and is therefore once again at risk of suicide. I will return to the detail of that report shortly.
For our purposes today, I should say that I entirely accept that a risk of suicide, on sufficiently well-established and clear evidence, can form the basis of a proper plea that the individual's Article 3 rights may be infringed by any action which could trigger suicide. That is well established in immigration law; and there seems to me to be no reason why the same principle should not apply in extradition cases. Indeed, in the case of Prancs v Rezekne Court of Latvia [2006] EWHC 2573 (Admin), Maurice Kay LJ indicated that in extradition cases a similar approach in relation to assertions of breaches of human rights should be adopted as that adopted in immigration cases.
It follows that...
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I Polish Judicial Authority v Mariusz Wolkowicz (Alias Del Ponti)
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