Court of Appeal dismisses appeal of High Court decision ordering the surrender of man to the United Kingdom for offences arising from the deaths of 39 people who were found dead in the back of a trailer, on the grounds that the European Arrest Warrant contained sufficient information to assess compliance with the relevant legislation, and the High Court was entitled to consider information furnished to it by the prosecution rather than the issuing judicial authority.
European Arrest Warrant – European law - appeal from the High Court – surrender sought for prosecution for 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration and an offence of conspiracy to engage in human trafficking - deaths of 39 people who were found dead in the back of a trailer – argued that the Minister was unable to rely on the additional information received from the prosecuting authority rather than the issuing judicial authority - UK authorities have indicated that they are not pursuing the offence of conspiracy to commit an offence of human trafficking - content of the EAW and the additional information – relevant statutory provisions – framework decision – High Court judgment – CJEU caselaw – since the hearing question has been referred to CJEU - Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union - response was made on behalf of the issuing judicial authority – whether such a response was permitted in English law - no statement of delegation - principle of mutual recognition - nature and extent of the information in the EAW and the endorsement process in the High Court - whether the information in the original EAW was sufficient for surrender – offences identified -
purported failure to provide details of the circumstances in which the offence was committed and in particular, the degree of involvement of the person in the commission of the offence - only possible inference from the EAW as a whole in this regard, is that the unlawful and dangerous act is the facilitation of the breach of immigration law by means of the use of the trailer to bring the unfortunate victims into the UK unknown to immigration officials - there is nothing unlawful or improper in an issuing State changing aspects of the charge against a person who is surrendered provided the general charge remains the same - where there is information in the EAW sufficient to establish correspondence, it is immaterial to the issue of whether the person should be surrendered on that offence if the issuing judicial authority (or prosecution authority) indicate that there may be an additional legal basis upon which the person can be prosecuted for the same offence – whether there was sufficient information to establish correspondence - issue referred to the CJEU by the Slovakian judicial authority has no bearing on this Court’s decision – whether the Framework Decision requires the additional information to be furnished by the issuing judicial authority - judicial processes that have been undertaken in respect of this particular European arrest warrant – principles of mutual trust and recognition – imperative to surrender in accordance with the Framework Decision - High Court was entitled to consider information furnished to it by the prosecution rather than the issuing judicial authority – reference not necessary -