Spain sought Mr DB’s surrender to enforce a 5-year sentence for fraud and related offences.
Unusually, Mr DB faced extradition proceedings for a second time, having already been discharged by District Judge (DJ) Sternberg in March 2023 on a materially identical arrest warrant.
However, in the present proceedings, DJ Sternberg found that the Spanish authorities’ decision to reissue proceedings – and not to appeal – circumvented his first judgment. Applying the recent High Court authority of Rymarski v Poland[2023] EWHC 3389, the DJ found that allowing the issue of a second warrant avoided the restrictions that apply to fresh evidence on appeal. Notably, the DJ explicitly endorsed the words of Johnson J in Rymarski by stating that “the need to ensure that parties are treated fairly and are on the same footing requires a degree of rigour in ensuring that the restrictions that apply to appeals are not side-stepped in a way that is only available to one party.” The second extradition request was a “collateral attack” on the DJ’s judgment in the first case.
The proceedings amounted to an abuse of process and Mr DB was discharged.
The CPS did not appeal.
Mr DB was represented by Ben Joyes of 9BR’s extradition team. Ben was instructed by Robert Katz of Hollingsworth Edwards.
Ben was also counsel in Rymarski – read more about that case here
