Extradition rejected despite European arrest warrant from UK

Higher Regional Court Hamm, Court's Order of 28.06.2016 – 2 Ausl. 100/16 - inadmissibility of the extradition of a German citizen to the UK based on EAW issued by the Magistrates Court in Leeds  

Our Client, a German national, had been resisting his extradition for criminal prosecution in the United Kingdom (UK) for five years. The extradition was requested by the English prosecution on the basis of an initial European Arrest Warrant in 2012. Through our intervention the Higher Regional Court in Hamm, Germany, declared the extradition inadmissible.

Providentially our client was never ordered to be placed under arrest in Germany pending extradition to the UK because the Chief Public Prosecutor took adequate account of our client’s interest in freedom, protected by the second sentence of Article 2.2 G.G. of the German Basic Constitutional Law. After Dr. Rademacher argued repeatedly that allowing the extradition on the basis of the first European Arrest Warrant would violate the fundamental rights of our client, the English authorities issued a further European Arrest Warrant in the hope of attaining a satisfactory decision on the extradition by the German Court.

Raising an objection on principle to the extradition of a German national to UK on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant per se was not considered possible. But the Higher Regional Court in Hamm / Germany had to take the essential legal questions of the extradition into account and also to ascertain all of the relevant facts of the case. The law governing extradition proceedings demands a high degree of legal certainty. Additionally, in legal proceedings based on a European Arrest Warrant, the courts are admonished to examine as carefully as possible whether the specific charges include punishable behaviour. They may not content themselves with merely performing a superficial legal review.

In the last resort, a violation of the fundamental right to protection from extradition would have resulted from the fact that the charges at issue, which date back to the year 2010, are barred under the statutes of German Criminal Law. After examining the legal situation again, the Higher Regional Court in Hamm, Germany, declared the extradition inadmissible on 28. June 2016.