If your client does not speak your language, it is imperative that you ask the relevant national court to provide an interpreter (Article 11(2) EAW FD) and Article 2(7) Directive 2010/64/EU.  Ensure that your client has been provided with a copy of the EAW/Schengen Entry and that they understand the content. Ensure that your client has been given an EAW Letter of Rights pursuant to Annex II Directive 2012/13/EU.

Indicative model Letter of Rights for persons arrested on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant

 

Instructions should be taken from your client to ascertain whether the EAW can be challenged.

You should also ask your client what their living and working arrangements are in your country, to assist with an application for bail.

i. Consent

The decision to consent requires careful consideration and the client needs to be advised fully, since a decision to consent implies waiving the right to oppose the execution of the EAW. It may also revoke the specialty rule (see below) and is often irrevocable. Consent is dealt with in Article 10 EAW FD.

Consenting to surrender will ordinarily result in your client being surrendered more quickly. Consent might therefore be adequate where there is no applicable refusal ground (see section E) and no possibility of having the EAW revoked or withdrawn in the Issuing State. However, given the risks, you should not usually advise your client to consent to surrender or waive their specialty protection without consulting with an ISL (see section H on the role of the ISL).

In order to consent to surrender, the decision must be formally recorded (in accordance with the laws of your country) and the individual must be legally represented.

ii. Voluntary return

Another option where there are no applicable refusal grounds and no possibility of the EAW being revoked or withdrawn is for the requested person to voluntarily return to the Issuing State. This can only occur if they are granted bail in the Executing State. A voluntary return might enable the requesting person to travel by his or her own means rather than under arrest and could therefore be less draconian. Nevertheless it should be pointed out that, since there might be an INTERPOL or a SIS II alert (see below section I), the person risks being detained in any EU Member State she might have to travel through. Should this happen, the EAW proceedings in the Executing State will be closed, and new EAW proceedings will be started in the state where the person has been arrested for the second time. A voluntary return will usually show willingness to engage in the criminal proceedings in the Issuing State. This may assist the requested person in the substantive proceedings in the Issuing State. For example, a court in the Issuing State may be more willing to grant alternatives to pre-trial detention to your client.

iii. Specialty Principle

The specialty rule is a guarantee that other outstanding allegations of criminal acts committed in the Issuing State prior to surrender may not be pursued against the requested person whilst they are in the Issuing State for the purposes of being prosecuted, sentenced or serving a sentence for the offence(s) contained within the EAW.

Specialty is therefore an important protection built into the EAW scheme and prevents a person being prosecuted in the Issuing State for conduct not set out in the EAW.

You should advise your client of their ‘specialty’ rights as they will be asked in court whether or not they ‘waive their specialty rights’, and in some member states, consenting to surrender may also include the waiver of specialty protection.

Specialty protection is afforded in accordance with Article 27 EAW FD. Article 27 sets out the circumstances when specialty protection is not afforded to requested persons once returned to the Issuing State.

The categories are therefore very broad, particularly Article 27(3)(d), which may mean that protection will not be available to your client following surrender. In some jurisdictions, such as the UK, consenting to surrender does not result in the waiver of specialty. It is therefore important, for a client that wishes to consent to surrender, to be fully advised about whether such consent will result in specialty being waived. It may be that your client is not concerned because they have not been involved in other criminal offences. However, they may be unaware of past investigations carried out into their conduct, which may only come to light once they have been surrendered to the Issuing State.

If in doubt, specialty should not be waived. In any event, your client can always waive it at a later stage, even after surrender (Article 28(3)(f) EAW FD).

Once returned to the Issuing State, the authorities may nevertheless desire that specialty be waived. If the requested person does not waive specialty at this point, the Executing State can nevertheless consent to prosecution for further offences. If there is a request by the Issuing State to the Executing State for it to waive specialty, proceedings will follow the same rules as for the execution of an EAW, i.e. the same refusal grounds will apply (Article 27(4) EAW FD). The ISL should ensure that specialty is not violated in the Issuing State after surrender (see beneath Section H). If your client has decided to consent (or has been surrendered), and the Issuing State’s judicial authority requests permission to prosecute for another offence, you may have a role in opposing or challenging the grant of such permission before the Executing State judicial authority.