European Arrest Warrant (Amendment) Act 2024

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Year: 2024
• Citation: IR No. 9/2024

European Arrest Warrant (Amendment) Act 2024

2024 9

An Act to give further effect to Council Framework Decision of 13 June 20021 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, as amended by Council Framework Decision of 26 February 20092 amending Framework Decisions 2002/584/JHA, 2005/214/JHA, 2006/783/JHA, 2008/909/JHA and 2008/947/JHA, thereby enhancing the procedural rights of persons and fostering the application of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions rendered in the absence of the person concerned at the trial; for that and other purposes to amend the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003; and to provide for related matters.

[12 March 2024]

Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows: 1 OJ No. L 190, 18.07.2002, p. 1 2 OJ No. L 81, 27.3.2009, p. 81

1 Definition

1. In this Act, “Act of 2003” means the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003.

2 Application of Act

(1) The amendments to the Act of 2003 effected by this Act shall apply to a relevant arrest warrant and a true copy thereof, that is—

(a)

endorsed in accordance with section 13(2) of the Act of 2003,

(b)

produced to the High Court under section 14(4) of the Act of 2003, or

(c)

issued under section 33(1) of the Act of 2003,

on or after the date on which this Act comes into operation.

(2) In this section—

“relevant arrest warrant” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2003;

“true copy” has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2003.

3 Amendment of section 2 of Act of 2003

(1) of the Act of 2003 is amended—

(a)

by the deletion of the definition of “Council Decision”,

(b)

in the definition of “Schengen Convention”, by the substitution of “SIS Regulation” for “Council Decision”,

(c)

in the definition of “SIS”, by the substitution of “SIS Regulation” for “Council Decision”, and

(d)

by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘flag’ means the addition to an alert by the SIRENE Bureau of a Member State, the Republic of Iceland or the Kingdom of Norway, pertaining to a European arrest warrant, to the effect that an action to be taken on the basis of the alert in accordance with Article 24 or 25 of the SIS Regulation will not be taken in the State;

‘remand centre’ has the same meaning as it has in section 3 of the Children Act 2001;

‘SIRENE Bureau’, in relation to a Member State, the Republic of Iceland or the Kingdom of Norway, means the authority designated by the Member State, the Republic of Iceland or the Kingdom of Norway, as the case may be, in accordance with Article 7 of the SIS Regulation to perform the functions referred to in that Article;

‘SIS Regulation’ means Regulation (EU) 2018/1862 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 November 2018³ 1;”.

³ OJ No. L 312, 7.12.2018, p. 56

⁴ OJ No. L 135, 22.5.2019, p. 85

⁵ OJ No. L 248, 13.7.2021, p. 1

⁶ OJ No. L 249, 14.7.2021, p. 1

⁷ OJ No. L 185, 12.7.2022, p. 1

4 Amendment of section 10 of Act of 2003

4. Section 10 of the Act of 2003 is amended—

(a) in paragraph (a)—

(i) by the substitution of “whom” for “against whom”, and

(ii) by the substitution of “prosecute” for “bring proceedings”,

(b) in paragraph (b), by the substitution of “a prosecution” for “proceedings”, and

(c) in paragraph (d), by the deletion of “in that state”.

5 Amendment of section 12 of Act of 2003

5. Section 12 of the Act of 2003 is amended by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (3B):

“(3B) The written record of a document that is transmitted in accordance with subsection (3)(b) shall be deemed to be the document that was transmitted and, in the case of the further transmission of the document electronically by or on behalf of the Central Authority in the State to the High Court, the written record of the document that is further transmitted shall be deemed to be the document that was transmitted to the Central Authority.”.

6 Amendment of section 13 of Act of 2003

6. Section 13 of the Act of 2003 is amended—

(a) by the substitution of the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) Upon an application under subsection (1), the High Court shall, in relation to a relevant arrest warrant, decide as soon as may be whether there has been compliance with the provisions of this Act, and, if so satisfied, shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Act, endorse the relevant arrest warrant for execution.”,

(b) in subsection (4)—

(i) in paragraph (b), by the substitution of “representation,” for “representation, and”,

(ii) in paragraph (c), by the substitution of “an interpreter, and” for “an interpreter.”, and

(iii) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (c):

“(d) in the case of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement arrest warrant, and without prejudice to paragraph (b), obtain, or be provided with, professional legal advice in the issuing state for the purposes of assisting his or her legal representatives in the State in respect of the proceedings under this Act.”,

and

(c) in subsection (5)(c)—

(i) in subparagraph (ii), by the substitution of “representation,” for “representation, and”,

(ii) in subparagraph (iii), by the substitution of “an interpreter, and” for “an interpreter.”, and

(iii) by the insertion of the following subparagraph after subparagraph (iii):

“(iv) in the case of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement arrest warrant, and without prejudice to subparagraph (ii), obtain, or be provided with, professional legal advice in the issuing state for the purposes of assisting his or her legal representatives in the State in respect of the proceedings under this Act.”.

7 Amendment of section 14 of Act of 2003

7. Section 14 of the Act of 2003 is amended—

(a) in subsection (5), by the substitution of “shall be released from custody or the terms of his or her bail” for “shall be released from custody”, and

(b) by the addition of the following subsections after subsection (5):

“(6) The release of a person under subsection (5) shall not prevent his or her re-arrest and surrender if a European arrest warrant for his or her surrender is received by the Central Authority and subsequently endorsed by the High Court for execution.

(7) Where the arrest and surrender of a person named in an alert is sought, the High Court shall direct the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána to request the SIRENE Bureau concerned to add a flag to the alert where—

(a) the person has been remanded on bail,

(b) the High Court has refused to surrender the person in accordance with section 16, or

(c) the person has been released from custody or the terms of his or her bail in accordance with subsection (5).”.

8 Insertion of sections 14A and 14B in Act of 2003

8. The Act of 2003 is amended by the insertion of the following sections after section 14:

“Facilitation of hearing by judicial authority of issuing state

14A. (1) Without prejudice to Part 4 of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020, this section applies where—

(a) a relevant arrest warrant has been issued by a judicial authority in an issuing state, and

(b) a decision regarding whether to make an order directing that a person be surrendered has not been taken.

(2) Where this section applies, the High Court shall, where practicable and on being satisfied that it is not contrary to the interests of justice, upon receiving a request from a judicial authority of an issuing state to facilitate a person in respect of whom the relevant arrest warrant was issued appearing using a live video link between that judicial authority and the place where the person is located, direct that arrangements be made to facilitate the video link request.

(3) Where a request is made, regarding a relevant arrest warrant issued in respect of a person who the issuing state intends to prosecute for an offence to which the warrant relates, that arrangements pursuant to the applicable relevant provisions be put in place to facilitate the person being heard by a judicial authority of the issuing state, the High Court shall decide whether—

(a) subject to subsection (5), to order the temporary transfer of the person to the issuing state, or

(b) to direct that the person be heard in accordance with subsection (7).

(4) The High Court shall, in making its decision under subsection (3), have regard to the views of the person concerned.

(5) The High Court shall not order a temporary transfer under subsection (3)(a) unless it is satisfied that the person shall be able to return to the State to participate in proceedings relating to him or her to which this Act applies.

(6) Where the High Court decides under subsection (3)(a) to order the temporary transfer of a person to the issuing state, the High Court shall, with the agreement of the issuing judicial authority, determine the conditions and duration of the transfer.

(7) Where the High Court decides under subsection (3)(b) to direct that the person be heard in accordance with subsection (7), the High Court shall, subject to subsection (8), direct that the person be heard—

(a) by a judge of the High Court, nominated by the President of the High Court, assisted by a person designated by the issuing state, and

(b) without prejudice to paragraph (a), otherwise in accordance with the law of the State applicable to proceedings under this Act.

(8) The High Court may, with the agreement of the issuing judicial authority, agree such other conditions as may be required for the purposes of this section.

(9) In this section, ‘applicable relevant provisions’ in relation to a relevant arrest warrant means—

(a) in respect of a European Arrest Warrant, Articles 18 and 19 of the Framework Decision,

(b) in respect of a Trade and Cooperation Arrest Warrant, Articles 617 and 618...