🇮🇹 Italy →

The Italian Court of Appeal ordered the surrender of the requested person to Germany pursuant to a prosecution European Arrest Warrant concerning aggravated theft offences. The appellant argued, inter alia, that the pending challenge against the rejection of his application for international protection triggered the principle of non-refoulement, that his social and occupational ties in Italy justified execution of any future sentence in Italy, and that double criminality had not been adequately established. The Supreme Court held that non-refoulement protection based on refugee status did not prevent surrender because refugee status and subsidiary protection had both been expressly denied, notwithstanding the fact that the refusal was under appeal; it also found that the five-year residence requirement under Italian EAW law was not met. The Court further reiterated that double criminality does not require identical criminal offences in the two legal systems, but only that the conduct be punishable in both, and declared the appeal inadmissible.