Lewczuk v Circuit Court in Lublin Poland
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | MR JUSTICE CALVERT SMITH |
| Judgment Date | 04 November 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] EWHC 2960 (Admin) |
| Date | 04 November 2010 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
| Docket Number | CO/6920/2010 |
[2010] EWHC 2960 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Before: Mr Justice Calvert Smith
CO/6920/2010
The Claimant appeared In Person
Mr B Gibbins appeared on behalf of the Defendant
This is an appeal brought under sections 26 and 27 of the Extradition Act 2003. The appellant wishes to appeal the order of the district judge at Westminster City Magistrates' Court that he be extradited to Poland. Poland is a Category 1 territory under part 1 of the Act.
The warrant was founded on the fact that this appellant received a sentence of 2 years' imprisonment for robbery at Biala Podlaska District Court on 21 February 2003, the sentence becoming enforceable on 3 March of the same year. It seems, from a letter supplied to the court recently by a Polish lawyer acting on the appellant's behalf, that there were attempts in Poland to postpone the implementation of the sentence. According to the letter there was an application which resulted in the postponement of the sentence effectively for 1 year, from March 2005 to March 2006.
A domestic warrant was issued in Poland on 5 March 2007 and the European Arrest Warrant was issued in Poland by the Circuit Court in Lublin, Poland, on 27 April 2008. The warrant was certified by the Serious Organised Crime Agency in July 2008 and on 2 March of this year the appellant was arrested at his home in Taunton. The following day he was re-arrested at Westminster City Magistrates' Court and appeared before the senior district judge.
At that hearing the possibility of a bar to extradition under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights was raised, based on the pregnancy of his wife. The case was listed on 22 March before another district judge when the possibility of the hearing in Poland and the withdrawal of the warrant was raised together with the Article 8 issue. On that occasion, Mr Lewczuk did not appear with a solicitor.
On 20 April, before the senior district judge again, the case was further adjourned in connection with the possible withdrawal of the warrant and a new submission based upon Article 3 of the European Convention, concerning prison conditions in Poland.
On 4 May there was another hearing. At that hearing, or shortly before it, a statement from a Polish lawyer named Czelevska Drozdek was served concerning the overcrowding issue. There was then an application for an adjournment which, though resisted, was granted. The case came before District Judge Evans On 17 June. A further adjournment was sought but refused. The Article 3 argument was placed before the district judge and rejected.
The grounds of appeal put forward contain the same grounds as those rejected by the district judge. So far as that ground of appeal is concerned, the...
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