Bosnia

The case concerned a review under section 21 of the Australian Extradition Act 1988 of a magistrate’s determination that the applicant was eligible for surrender to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The applicant relied on the extradition objection in section 7(c), arguing that, if extradited, he might be punished, detained or restricted in his liberty by reason of his political opinions or religion, in light of serious mistreatment previously suffered from other prisoners while detained in Bihac prison. The Federal Court accepted that the applicant’s account of past prisoner violence was reliable and that the violence had been connected to his actual or perceived political opinions, but held that the word “punished” in section 7(c) does not extend to harm inflicted by fellow prisoners unless the requesting State is involved in, complicit in, or condones both the harm and the discriminatory reasons for it. The Court further held that the existence of a duty of care owed by prison authorities to prisoners did not, of itself, transform failures of supervision or protection into State complicity or condonation for the purposes of section 7(c). Since the required extradition objection was not established, the Court confirmed the applicant’s eligibility for surrender, while noting that the risk of future harm should be brought to the Attorney-General’s attention at the executive surrender stage.