Surrender to Poland for sentence service upheld despite delay and personal circumstances

The High Court granted an application for the surrender of an individual to Poland under a European Arrest Warrant, allowing the enforcement of the balance of a drug trafficking sentence originally imposed in the United Kingdom and subsequently converted into a Polish sentence after transfer. The respondent, who had absconded after being granted temporary release in Poland and later became an Irish citizen under a different name, unsuccessfully challenged his surrender on grounds including the enforceability of the sentence, alleged deficiencies in the warrant, breach of the rule of specialty, correspondence, trial representation, prison conditions, family rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the purported imposition of a heavier penalty than that applicable at the time of the offence. The court held that none of these objections warranted refusal of surrender, emphasising mutual trust between member states, the respondent's own initiation of sentence transfer, and the lack of exceptional circumstances that could override the strong public interest in executing the warrant.