Robert Kozar v District Court in Liberec, Czech Republic
| Judge | Mr Justice Julian |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 2226 (Admin) |
| Date | 28 August 2024 |
| Counsel | Ben Joyes,Georgia Beatty |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | King's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 2226 (Admin)
Case No: AC-2024-LON-000360
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 28/08/2024
Before :
MR JUSTICE JULIAN KNOWLES
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Between :
ROBERT KOZAR Appellant
- and -
DISTRICT COURT IN LIBEREC,
CZECH REPUBLIC
Respondent
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Ben Joyes (instructed by Birds) for the Appellant
Georgia Beatty (instructed by CPS) for the Respondent
Hearing dates: 25 July 2024
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Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 10:30 on 28 August 2024 by circulation to the
parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives.
.............................
Mr Justice Julian Knowles:
Introduction
1. This is an appeal with the leave of Jay J dated 20 June 2024 following an oral hearing,
permission having been refused on the papers. The Appellant appeals against the
judgment of District Judge Law dated 30 January 2024, ordering his extradition to
the Czech Republic pursuant to s 21A(5) of the Extradition Act 2003 (EA 2003). The
Appellant is in custody.
2. The grounds of appeal are, in summary, that: (a) extradition would be
disproportionate having regard to what is said to be the trivial nature of the offences
in question, and so barred by s 21A(4)(b) of the EA 2003 (I will call this statutory
disproportionality); (b) extradition would be incompatible with the Appellant’s rights
under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and so barred
by s 21A(4)(a).
3. On behalf of the Appellant it was conceded before the district judge that extradition
would not be disproportionate. However, on this appeal, Mr Joyes (who did not
appear below) seeks to argue that it would be, as well being in breach of Article 8.
On behalf of the Respondent, Ms Beatty accepted that the issue could be raised on
appeal notwithstanding the concession below.
4. I am grateful to Mr Joyes and Ms Beatty for their written and oral submissions.
Background
5. On 24 February 2022 the Respondent issued an extradition arrest warrant (AW1) in
respect of the Appellant. It is an accusation warrant which seeks the Appellant’s
extradition to stand trial for an offence of shoplifting and a related offence of using a
bank card to pay for the goods which did not belong to him.
6. It is alleged that on 10 August 2019 he ‘grasped’ two bottles of wine worth in total
CZK 79.80 [about £2.69] in the BlLLA shop in Liberec and walked out of the shop
without paying, and that when he was stopped by a security guard he tried to pay for
the wine using an AirBank payment card issued to one Petr Cihacek, which the
Appellant had found the same day on a street in Liberec.
7. As the district judge recorded at [12], the Appellant was interviewed by the police and
made full admissions. Further information confirmed that there had been no decision
made about whether the Appellant was authorised to leave the Czech Republic. While
he was under no obligation to notify the authorities of any change of address as such,
he was aware that a criminal prosecution had been commenced and that the police and
prosecutor needed to be able to contact him.
8. A domestic arrest warrant was issued by the District Court in Liberec on 7 February
2021 (File No. 1 T 97/2019-74). The conduct is said to amount to (a) the offence of
theft, pursuant to s 205 (2) of the Czech Penal Code; (b) the criminal offence of
unauthorised procurement, counterfeiting or alteration of a means of payment,
pursuant to s 234 (1) of the Czech Penal Code.
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