Concerns over Polish courts aren’t enough to deny extradition requests, EU adviser says

LUXEMBOURG (CN) — An adviser to the European Union’s top court doesn’t think that increasing concerns over the fairness of Poland’s judicial system are enough to halt extraditions to the country. 

In his nonbinding opinion for the European Court of Justice that is not yet publicly available, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos concluded that while there are worries across the EU over the impartiality of Polish courts, European arrest warrants must be executed unless the suspect is directly at risk of unfair proceedings. A press release about the advisory opinion was not immediately available in English.

In separate cases in September, the District Court of Amsterdam refused to order the extradition of two Polish men - one wanted on charges of fraud, the other for allegedly making violent threats - from the Netherlands to Poland. Last year, the International Legal Assistance Chamber, a group of special magistrates who determine whether foreign nationals living in the Netherlands may be extradited, recommended stopping all extraditions to Poland, finding the judiciary is no longer independent. 

According to Rantos, a defendant seeking to stop their extradition has to prove that any judges likely to participate in hearings are not independent and that lack of independence would likely have a negative outcome on the case.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice established a two-step process for refusing to execute European arrest warrants in the a 2016 decision. It held that national courts can only refuse warrants if the judge can establish systemic problems with independence and if those issues would have a direct impact on the defendant. 

The European arrest warrant system, which came into effect in 2004, replaced a process in which the EU’s 27 member states had to negotiate their own extradition arrangements with one another.

Since coming to power in 2015, Poland's ruling Law and Justice party has tried to overhaul the country's judiciary, including setting up an illegal judicial disciplinary chamber to remove judges it doesn't like. The Court of Justice is currently fining Warsaw $1.2 million per day for refusing to abide by its rulings. 

In October, Poland's constitutional court ruled it is superior to the Court of Justice, which, according to EU treaties, is the final arbiter of EU law. The Polish court's ruling further inflamed already high tensions between the bloc and the Central European country. 

The Netherlands isn’t alone in refusing to extradite suspects to Poland. Germany and Spain have also denied such requests.

The European Court of Human Rights, which operates outside the EU court system, has also found the Polish judiciary system is no longer independent and impartial. 

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