Polish man to be extradited after landmark court ruling

A SUSPECTED drugs trafficker, whose extradition was postponed over fears of alleged interference by Poland’s government in its judiciary, will now be sent home to face trial.

The landmark case concerns Artur Celmer, a 31-year-old Polish national who was sought by the Polish authorities over alleged drugs-trafficking offences dating back to 2007.

In May last year he was arrested and jailed in Dublin pending an extradition request by Poland.

But in March this year, the High Court in Dublin raised concerns Mr Celmer – who had been living in Ireland for ten years – might not get a fair trial in a country where the government had given itself the right to fire Supreme Court judges at will.

Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, the judge in charge of High Court extradition, postponed the surrender of dozens of suspected criminals to Poland earlier this year over concerns for their fair trial rights.

Following a referral of Mr Celmer’s case by Judge Donnelly to the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg, the High Court was advised that it must assess whether there was a specific risk to Mr Celmer that his fair trial rights would be breached.

In a judgment issued yesterday, Judge Aileen Donnelly said the court still had concerns about the separation of powers in Poland, and about the country’s justice minister carrying a joint role of public prosecutor.

She said she had also been concerned after Poland’s deputy justice minister was quoted as calling Mr Celmer a ‘dangerous criminal’ connected to a ‘drugs mafia’, despite the presumption of innocence.

But she said the High Court had not been given any statistics or even anecdotal evidence of trials lacking in fairness since the changes regarding the judiciary in Poland.

She ordered that Mr Celmer should be surrendered to Polish authorities within the next 25 days. His lawyers have the option of appealing and the case will be mentioned before the High Court again next Monday.