QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
AND
THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE MITTING
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JAN KRZYZOWSKI |
Appellant |
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- and - |
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THE CIRCUIT COURT IN GLIWICE, POLAND |
Respondent |
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Ms Charlotte Powell (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service) for the Defendant
Hearing dates: 15th November 2007
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Longmore :
Introduction
"A person's extradition to a category 1 territory is barred by reasons of the passage of time if (and only if) it appears that it would be unjust or oppressive to extradite him by reason of the passage of time since he is alleged to have
a) committed the extradition offence (where he is accused of its commission …."
""Unjust" I regard as directed primarily to the risk of prejudice to the accused in the conduct of the trial itself, "oppressive" as directed to hardship to the accused resulting from changes in his circumstances that have occurred during the period to be taken into consideration; but there is room for overlapping, and between them they would cover all cases where to return him would not be fair. Delay in the commencement or conduct of extradition proceedings which is brought about by the accused himself by fleeing the country, concealing his whereabouts or evading arrest cannot, in my view, be relied upon as a ground for holding it to be either unjust or oppressive to return him. Any difficulties that he may encounter in the conduct of his defence in consequence of the delay due to such causes are of his own choice and making. Save in the most exceptional circumstances it would be neither unjust nor oppressive that he should be required to accept them."
The Facts
1) that on 24th June 1999 an indictment against the Appellant had been brought before the District Court in Rybnik;2) that according to Art. 300 of Polish Penal Code before the first hearing, the Appellant was informed of his rights and duties in each case, which he certified with his signature;
3) that he was also informed about "his absolute duty to attend to each summons of procedure authority under pain of arrest and compulsory bringing and a duty of informing about each change of address and indicating an addressee of delivery in the country in case of sojourn abroad, under pain of delivering letters on a hitherto address and regarding them as delivered with all consequences";
4) that in October 2001 the Police got information delivered by the wife of the accused that he was abroad;
5) that the wife did not give any contact address for the Appellant and did not undertake to convey him information from Court;
6) that on 13th November 2001 the proceedings were stayed, interim arrest was applied and a search with a wanted notice was ordered;
7) that the Police did not regard as reliable the information that the Appellant was abroad but that in December 2006 the prosecutor required the Circuit Court to issue the European Arrest Warrant and they notified Interpol.
1) After his release from prison on licence in 1995, the Appellant refused twice to pay protection money to the local police in respect of first a car hire business and then a bar which he owned. As a result he was fearful of a false accusation by them that he was in breach of his licence and liable to be returned to prison;2) In March 1999, he approached a bar where he had observed signs of people trying to break in, and was arrested by police at the scene;
3) He was then taken to the police station and questioned about not only that burglary but a number of others;
4) He denied responsibility for all offences in interview, but no written records were made;
5) The police released him the following day and explained that if they proposed to proceed further with the matter, they would write to him. He never received any such communication;
6) He saw the interviewing officers frequently as they would drink in his bar. No further mention was ever made of the burglaries;
7) He continued living at the address stated on the warrant until he left Poland. His wife still lived at that address;
8) He never had to attend court in relation to the allegations contained within the warrant and had never signed any court documents;
9) He left Poland for the United Kingdom on 18th October 1999, travelling under his own name. The reasons for his departure were those set out at paragraph (1) above;
10) He accepted that there is a duty upon Polish citizens to inform the authorities of a change in their domestic address, but claimed that there was no such duty if they leave the country. Accordingly, he did not inform the Polish authorities that he was moving to the UK;
11) In 2001, police attended his home address in Poland and asked for the Appellant. His wife told them that he was abroad. They did not ask her for his address and did not state the reason for their visit. She told him about their visit, which he assumed was to do with their previous requests for protection money;
12) His wife had visited him in England but apparently did not mention his whereabouts to police in Poland.
"This is a case where the person is wanted in Poland. He is accused of 16 offences. Three of which are not extradition offences. He raises a bar of passage of time and human rights in parallel in regard to his health and his son which also tie in with oppression.
As to the passage of time, the first fact in issue is 'Did he flee the jurisdiction?' I have the EAW, additional information from the Judicial Authority, his proof and the benefit of having heard him give live evidence.
As far as his evidence is concerned, I did not find him an impressive witness. I do not believe a number of things he told me. I am satisfied that he knew all about these proceedings. The JA says he signed a document setting out all of his rights and duties and the absolute duty on him to attend summonses and to inform the court of his change of address. He disputes this and says he was never given the document and never signed it and that colours my view. I am entirely sure that he did flee in full knowledge of outstanding matters and to avoid the prosecution. Therefore, he is not entitled to rely on a passage of time argument.
If I had decided that question differently, I would have found as follows.
The second question I would have had to answer is would extradition be unjust? Injustice has not been made out. The injustice points raised are speculative. He had been arrested and questioned and it is reasonable to suppose a record had been kept of what he said at the time so he will be reminded of the matters. It is not just a matter of him simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was arrested walking past the bar – the fact that he was indicted means there must obviously be better evidence than that. The evidence exists and he knows what the nature of it is because he was questioned about it.
The third question I would have had to answer is would extradition be oppressive? His son is at school and doing his GCSEs. The defence say his son will have to leave school if he is extradited because he is the sole carer. I am not convinced that it is necessarily essential that his son will have to leave school. His sister lives in the UK and [in short] he can reside there.
The defence have referred me to authorities which I agree with the prosecution can be distinguished. Looking at the case as a whole is the correct approach set out in La Torre and I adopt it to find there is no oppression in the circumstances.
He has failed to satisfy me on the balance of probabilities.
Miss Powell has helpfully set out her submissions in her skeleton argument and I agree with all the points she made.
As to human rights, this has not specifically been argued but I guess arguing that he would be forced to abandon his son raises human rights. But again I find that extradition would be compatible with his human rights to face charges which I believe he knew all about and he is not entitled to escape it just because he fled the country. I find that extradition would be compatible with his Human Rights.
I order extradition accordingly."
Burden and standard of proof in relation to deliberate flight
Judge's decision on the facts
"to establish … a simpler, quicker, more effective procedure [than previous extradition procedures], founded on Member States' confidence in the integrity of each other's legal and judicial systems" Office of the King's Prosecutor, Brussels v Armas 2005 UKHL 67 [2006] 2 AC 1, 7 para 2.
Effects of ruling of deliberate flight
"…at the point where it is no longer reasonable for the requesting state not to have located the offender. From that point it becomes increasingly likely that the sense of security engendered by state inaction will render extradition oppressive."
"All the circumstances must be considered in order to judge whether the unjust/oppressive test is met. Culpable delay on the part of the State may certainly colour that judgment and may sometimes be decisive, not least in what is otherwise a marginal case … The extraditee cannot take advantage of delay for which he is himself responsible…"
The last sentence of this quotation shows that Laws LJ intended to be faithful to Kakis (as indeed was Woolf LJ in Osman (No. 4) at 587f) and I would prefer to follow that lead rather than the lead offered in Goodyer.
"Unjust or oppressive"
"… must produce some evidence that there was good reason to think that there would be a basis for rejecting an abuse of process application."
Keene LJ agreed and added
"Section 14 of the 2003 Act imposes a duty upon this court to make its own decision as to whether it would be unjust or oppressive to extradite someone by reason of the passage of time. The fact that the requesting state is a signatory to the ECHR is a relevant factor but I do not myself see it as being determinative of this issue in the absence of other evidence about the legal processes in that state. After all, states do not always comply with their Convention obligations in every case. It is a matter of record that many signatory states have been found to have breached Article 6 of that convention from time to time."
"(5) Traditional cooperation relations which have prevailed up till now between Member States should be replaced by a system of free movement of judicial decisions in criminal matters, covering both pre-sentence and final decisions, within an area of freedom, security and justice.
…
(10) The mechanism of the European arrest warrant is based on a high level of confidence between Members States."
Conclusion
Mr Justice Mitting :
""Unjust" I regard as directed primarily to the risk of prejudice to the accused in the conduct of the trial itself, "oppressive" as directed to hardship to the accused resulting from changes in his circumstances that have occurred during the period to be taken into consideration; but there is room for overlapping, and between them they would cover all cases where to return him would not be fair. Delay in the commencement or conduct of extradition proceedings which is brought about by the accused himself by fleeing the country, concealing his whereabouts or evading arrest cannot, in my view, be relied upon as a ground for holding it to be either unjust or oppressive to return him. Any difficulties that he may encounter in the conduct of his defence in consequence of the delay due to such causes are of his own choice and making. Save in the most exceptional circumstances it would be neither unjust nor oppressive that he should be required to accept them."
Lord Russell of Killowen and Lord Scarman agreed with Lord Diplock's speech: 785F and 790B.
1) Upon whom lies the burden of proving that the appellant fled justice in the requesting state, and to what standard?2) On the premise that a finding that it might be unjust to extradite the appellant, by reason of delay, is the requesting state required to establish that it has a procedure akin to the domestic abuse of process procedure to demonstrate that it would not be unjust to extradite him?