That authority must, however, refuse to execute that European arrest warrant if it finds that there are systemic or generalised deficiencies affecting the judicial system of that Member State and that the court called upon to
try the requested person in that Member State clearly lacks jurisdiction.
The Spanish Supreme Court refers questions to the Court of Justice which have arisen in the context of the prosecution of former Catalan leaders following a referendum, held on 1 October 2017, concerning selfdetermination for the Autonomous Community of Catalonia (Spain). European arrest warrants (EAW) were issued for some of the defendants who had left Spain, including Mr Lluís Puig Gordi. The Belgian courts refused to give effect to the EAW issued for Mr Puig Gordi. They considered that there was a risk that his right to be tried by a tribunal established by law would be infringed, given that the jurisdiction of the Spanish Supreme Court to try the persons sought did not have an express legal basis.
The Spanish Supreme Court asks whether an executing judicial authority may refuse to execute an EAW by relyingon a ground for non-execution which is not set out in the framework decision on EAWs, 1 or on the ground that theissuing judicial authority (in the present case, the Spanish Supreme Court) does not have jurisdiction to issue the EAW in question. Furthermore, the Spanish Supreme Court is uncertain as to the conditions under which the judicial authority responsible for executing an EAW (in the present case, the Belgian courts) may refuse to execute that EAW on the ground of an alleged infringement of the defendant’s fundamental rights. It asks, in particular, whether theexecuting judicial authority may, for that purpose, assess the jurisdiction of the court called upon to try the requested person in the event of him or her being surrendered to the issuing Member State…
Read https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-01/cp230019en.pdf
By
Robert Williams