District Judge Bristow sitting at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 5 February 2025 discharged Mr AB, a British national with an international DJ career, following the withdrawal of the arrest warrant issued by the County Court in Šibenik, Croatia in 2024. The Šibenik court sought Mr AB’s surrender to serve a one-year prison sentence for a single drugs offence, after convicting Mr AB in his presence in 2017. Mr AB was not required to remain in Croatia during his appeal proceedings, his conviction became final in 2019, but no steps were taken to commence sentence enforcement proceedings before 2023.
Mr AB’s legal team identified matters of Croatian law relevant to the extradition proceedings and instructed an expert in Croatian law to confirm the date on which limitation for the execution of Mr AB’s sentence would expire and the warrant would become unlawful, making his extradition an abuse of process and disproportionate to his private and family life in the UK. Mr AB raised other challenges to extradition, including violation of Article 3 and s14.
Defence expert evidence confirmed limitation would expire a week before Mr AB’s extradition hearing. The Croatian judicial authority discontinued sentence execution proceedings against Mr AB in Croatia because of limitation, and followed this by withdrawing the warrant on the morning of the day Mr AB was due to attend his extradition hearing in London. Mr AB was on his way to London when he was discharged and awarded the costs of his wasted journey.
Mr AB was represented by Tihomir Mak of 9BR Chambers’ extradition and international team. Tihomir was instructed by Ms Katy Smart of Sonn Macmillan Walker, ably assisted by Mr Enrico Braguglia.
