🇮🇹 Italy → 🇦🇱 Albania

Extradition under the European Convention on Extradition does not entail an assessment by the requested State of the existence of serious indications of guilt. However, the judicial authority of the requested State cannot confine itself to a merely formal review of the accompanying documentation; rather, pursuant to Article 705 of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure, it must carry out a prima facie assessment aimed at verifying—on the basis of the materials submitted—the existence of elements against the requested person, viewed within the procedural framework of the requesting State. In other words, the Italian judicial authority is required to ascertain, through a summary evaluation, that the documentation attached to the request is concretely capable of demonstrating—within the perspective of the requesting State’s legal system—the existence of evidence against the person sought, corresponding to offences that are also punishable under domestic law, on the basis of a sufficiently detailed description of the sources of evidence. This must be done, contrary to the applicant’s argument, without conducting an autonomous assessment of the seriousness of the evidentiary indications.

In extradition proceedings, the assessment of the existence of serious indicia of guilt must be carried out autonomously by the judicial authority of the requested State. Evaluations or findings made by the judicial authorities of a third State, other than the requesting State, have no relevance or binding effect in determining whether the evidentiary threshold required for extradition is satisfied.