The requested person challenged an Italian appellate decision authorising surrender to Greece under a European Arrest Warrant issued for prosecution for attempted murder and aggravated robbery. The Court held that the risk of inhuman or degrading treatment must be assessed also in relation to prosecution EAWs and requires an individualised examination of the actual detention conditions awaiting the requested person, including available personal space, overcrowding, time outside the cell, staffing levels and other compensating factors. It found that the appellate court had accepted the information supplied by the Greek authorities without sufficiently assessing whether those conditions complied with Article 3 ECHR and Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The judgment was therefore quashed and remitted for a new assessment of prison conditions, while the separate complaint concerning an alleged risk of discrimination connected with the requested person’s Kurdish ethnicity was dismissed.

The Court of Appeal must carry out a specific assessment where the requested person, on the basis of objective, reliable, precise and properly updated elements, alleges a serious risk of being subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment in the issuing State. Once the existence of a general and current risk of inhuman treatment in the Member State has been established on the basis of reliable sources, it is necessary to verify whether, in the конкрет case, the person subject to the European Arrest Warrant would actually be exposed to such treatment. Accordingly, a targeted inquiry must be conducted in order to ascertain—through “individualised” information to be requested from the issuing State—the specific detention conditions to which the requested person will be subjected, with particular regard to those aspects identified by reliable sources as critical and capable of giving rise to a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment.

Once the existence of a current, general risk of inhuman treatment in the issuing Member State has been established on the basis of reliable sources, it must then be assessed whether, in the specific case, the person subject to the European Arrest Warrant would be exposed to such treatment. Accordingly, a targeted assessment must be carried out to determine—through “individualised” information to be requested from the issuing State—the concrete conditions of detention to which the requested person will be subjected, with particular regard to those aspects identified by reliable sources as critical and capable of giving rise to a risk of inhuman or degrading treatment. Where the content of such information excludes that risk, the Court of Appeal must, in accordance with the principle of mutual recognition, simply take note of it and proceed with the surrender, without requiring any additional guarantees regarding detention conditions. Conversely, where the risk is not excluded and the Court of Appeal must refuse surrender, the decision on surrender is to be regarded as issued “on the basis of the state of the file”, so that it may be reassessed if and when the obstacle to surrender ceases to exist.

In the context of a European Arrest Warrant, a surrender decision is lawful even where no Italian translation of the judgment underlying the request has been provided. Moreover, where the European Arrest Warrant expressly states that the requested person has the right to seek a retrial in the issuing State and that, following surrender, he will be expressly informed of that right, the condition required for surrender pursuant to a so-called “executive” warrant must be considered satisfied.