LUXEMBOURG (CN) — Extraditing suspects to Poland does not violate their fair-trial rights, the EU’s high court found Tuesday in the bloc’s latest legal battle over rule of law.
Although there are problems with the Polish judiciary system, those problems are not substantial enough for other EU countries to refuse to deport suspects to Poland, the new ruling from the European Court of Justice says.
The pair of cases were referred to the Luxembourg-based court by the District Court of Amsterdam, or Rechtbank Amsterdam. In September of last year, judges there refused to order the extradition of two Polish men wanted on European Arrest Warrants, following a recommendation by the International Legal Assistance Chamber. The group of special magistrates who determine whether foreign nationals living in the Netherlands may be extradited had issued a warning that people extradited to Poland may not receive a fair trial because of problems with the legal system.
Under the European Arrest Warrant system, warrants issued by any EU member states are valid across all countries in the 27-member political and economic union. National courts can refuse to enforce them, however, if the suspect is directly at risk of unfair proceedings. In a 2016 decision, the ECJ created a two-step process for refusing to execute European arrest warrants. First, a judge must determine there are structural deficiencies in the judiciary and then show that the suspect’s fair trial rights are directly at risk because of those problems.
The same Dutch court refused in 2020 to execute an arrest warrant for a Polish national accused of drug smuggling, writing “there is a real risk of a violation of the right to an independent court and thus of an infringement of the essence of the right to a fair trial” if they sent the man to Poland. The ECJ later upheld the two-step process, echoing an opinion by an advocate general that said countries could not automatically refuse extradition requests but must examine them individually.
Here, the Dutch judges used the two-step process and concluded the men — one wanted on charges of fraud, the other for allegedly making violent threats — would likely not get a fair trial in Poland, specifically because the organization in Poland responsible for nominating judges and reviewing complaints, the Polish National Council of the Judiciary, or KRS, is no longer independent. The Court of Justice has already ruled the KRS is illegal.
The ECJ’s Grand Chamber found, however, that while there are structural problems with the Polish judiciary, it isn’t clear those problems mean suspects won’t get a fair trial. The 17-judge panel said it was “not sufficient” to show that judges involved in the case were appointed by the KRS.
Since Poland's ruling Law and Justice party took power in 2015, it has put increasing pressure on the country’s judiciary to bend to its political will. In a landmark ruling last week, the ECJ gave the green light to Brussels to block financial payments if Poland doesn’t adhere to democratic norms.
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