→ 🇬🇷 Greece

The Italian Court of Appeal ordered the surrender of a person sought by Greece under a European Arrest Warrant issued for prosecution in connection with aggravated theft and participation in a criminal organisation. The requested person challenged the adequacy of the factual information in the EAW, the failure to seek supplementary information, the continuing validity of the underlying arrest warrant and the failure to recognise his family and professional integration in Italy. The Supreme Court held that the EAW contained the minimum information required to identify the alleged conduct and that supplementary information may be requested only where necessary to decide on surrender, not for exploratory purposes or to reassess the evidential basis of the accusation. It also held that the requested person had failed to prove the stable and continuous five-year residence required for the safeguard applicable to prosecution EAWs, and declared the appeal inadmissible.

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.