🇮🇹 Italy →

The requested person challenged an Italian appellate decision ordering surrender to Malta under a European Arrest Warrant issued for prosecution in connection with drug-trafficking offences and breach of bail conditions. The Court held that an EAW issued for prosecution does not require the executing judicial authority to conduct a prior full review of the underlying national coercive order, but found that the Maltese offence of breach of bail conditions lacked a corresponding offence under Italian law and therefore failed the double criminality requirement. It further held that, although stable residence in Italy is not a ground for refusing a prosecution EAW, where the requested person is stably integrated in Italy the surrender must be made conditional upon their return to Italy to serve any custodial sentence or measure ultimately imposed. The judgment was therefore quashed without remand as regards surrender for the bail offence and as regards the omitted return condition, while the remainder of the appeal was dismissed.

Switzerland requested the extradition of the requested person for the enforcement of a final custodial sentence concerning drug-related offences and the unauthorised sale of medicinal products. The Italian courts had granted extradition only for drug trafficking and unauthorised pharmaceutical sales, while refusing it for possession of drugs for personal use because that conduct is subject only to an administrative sanction under Italian law and therefore fails the double criminality requirement. On appeal, the requested person incorrectly argued that extradition had also been granted for personal drug use. The Court of Cassation declared the appeal inadmissible, holding that the refusal concerning that offence had already become final and that the extradition order was limited to the offences for which double criminality was satisfied.

The case concerned a Swiss request for extradition from Italy for prosecution in relation to aggravated continuing fraud and forgery of private documents. The alleged conduct involved a fraudulent investment scheme based on representations concerning gold trading and the ownership of mines, supported by allegedly false documents and communications. The Court of Appeal of Bologna held that extradition could be granted only in part. Double criminality was satisfied for the aggravated fraud allegations, which corresponded to fraud under Italian law and were not time-barred. However, extradition was refused for the offences of forgery of private documents, because the corresponding Italian offence had been repealed. The Court also examined whether Italian proceedings concerning similar or related conduct barred extradition. It held that only proceedings concerning the same historical facts and the same injured parties could prevent extradition, not merely proceedings involving analogous conduct or the same general context. Since overlap was established only for one specific fraud allegation already under investigation in Italy, extradition was excluded for that fact alone. Pending Italian proceedings for different facts did not prevent a finding of extraditability, since any decision to postpone surrender or allow temporary surrender fell within the competence of the Minister of Justice at the execution stage. The Court therefore declared the conditions for extradition satisfied for the aggravated fraud offences, except for the fact already pending before the Italian judicial authority, and refused extradition for private-document forgery.