Extradition—Convention rights—Polish extradition

Queen’s Bench Division, Administrative Court (London), Sir John Thomas P and Globe J, 17 August 2012

The Administrative Court has given guidance on the future treatment of appeals against extradition to Poland where an appellant relies upon the alleged prison conditions in Poland to support a submission under Art 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention).

Mark Smith (instructed under the Direct Access Scheme) for the appellants. Hannah Pye and Katherine Tyler (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service) for the judicial authorities.

Six extradition appeals were listed together as in each case the sole issue was the same, namely whether to extradite the appellants under either accusation or conviction European Arrest Warrants would be a breach of Art 3 of the Convention by reason of prison conditions in Poland. One of the purposes of hearing the six appeals together was to enable the court to set out the way