6.1 The European Arrest Warrant Act, 2003 came into operation on 1 January 2004. Section 2 of the Act defines the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) as a Court decision in one member state of the EU addressed to a Court in another member state of the EU for the purpose of “conducting a criminal prosecution or the execution of a custodial sentence in the issuing member state”.
6.2 Requests for the preparation of EAWs are submitted to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions by the extradition unit of An Garda Síochána. A lawyer in our Solicitors Division drafts the warrant and submits it for approval to our Directing Division. On receipt of a direction to proceed with the application, our Solicitors Division applies to the courts for a warrant. Applications for EAWs are normally made to a Judge of the High Court sitting in Dublin. When the order has been granted the warrant is then dispatched to the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform. The Department then transmits the warrant to the country where it is believed the requested person is residing.
6.3 Since the introduction of the European Arrest Warrant Act in January 2004, 177 files requesting the preparation of EAWs were received by the Office of the DPP from the Garda Extradition Section (39 in 2007). In 16 of these files, the application for an EAW was not proceeded with because the requested person had been arrested locally in Ireland, the requested person or the complainant had died or the DPP had so directed. In 17 cases, the drafting and application process is ongoing. In respect of the remainder, 144 European Arrest Warrants have been issued by the Irish courts (34 in 2007). 130 were transmitted to the UK (23 of which went to Northern Ireland and 3 to Scotland), 6 to Spain, 3 to the Netherlands and 1 each to Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Portugal.
6.4 93 of the 144 requested persons were Irish nationals, 34 were British and 2 were from Lithuania. There was one requested person from Albania, America, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Ghana, Latvia, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Spain and Tunisia and three cases where the nationality of the requested person was unknown. The offences for which they were sought covered a wide range of serious offences including murder, sexual offences, drugs offences, thefts and serious assaults. Section 33 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 permits an EAW to be issued only if the offence carries on conviction a term of imprisonment of at least 12 months or, where the requested person is a convicted person, a term of 4 months imprisonment has been imposed. This ensures that applications for EAWs are made for serious offences only.
6.5 Of the 144 warrants issued to date, 74 people have been arrested and extradited back to Ireland (25 in 2007). Only one request for extradition was refused. The refusal was based on the passage of time and other considerations. A further 7 have been arrested abroad and are currently before the courts or have had their surrender ordered and postponed because they are serving sentences in the requested country.
6.6 Of the remaining warrants, 15 have been discontinued either because the requested person has been arrested locally in Ireland after the EAW issued or because the requested person or the complainant has died. The balance remain unexecuted because the location of the requested person is unknown, having moved address at the time the EAW was dispatched to the requesting country. In these cases the Garda authorities will continue to liaise with their colleagues in Interpol in an effort to establish the exact location of the requested person.
6.7 From the prosecution point of view the EAW is proving to be a very effective instrument in securing the return of accused persons. To work as effectively as it has done to date, the European Arrest Warrant will depend on EU member states continuing to trust each others legal systems and accepting and recognising the decisions of each other’s courts.
6.8 The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions does not deal with European Arrest Warrants addressed to the State by other countries. These are dealt with by the Central Authority located in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform subject to the legal advice of the Attorney General.