Dutch court announces no extraditions to Poland due to lack of Polish judiciary’s independence

The International Legal Aid Chamber (IRK) of the Amsterdam District Court has announced that it will no longer enforce European Arrest Warrants to Poland, on the basis that the Polish judiciary is no longer independent, and pending a ruling answering its preliminary questions concerning the consequences of the loss of judicial independence in Poland.

The IRK’s questions to the Court of Justice related to a European Arrest Warrant issued by a Polish court for the purpose of criminal prosecution, and the IRK has now asked a question about an EAW relating to the execution of a prison sentence imposed by a Polish court. The IRK wants to be sure whether the lack of sufficient guarantees for the independence of Polish judges also has consequences when those guarantees were already lacking at the time an EAW was issued for the purpose of serving an already imposed prison sentence.

This comes in the background of the degradation of the rule of law in Poland – read our Editorial Comment on that here. This situation was put in motion by reforms implemented by the Polish Government through a law of 20 December 2019 to change the composition of the judiciary and impose disciplinary sanctions. There are a series of infringement procedures initiated by the European Commission that are ongoing against Poland to safeguard judicial independence, as well as an Article 7 procedure which could see Poland lose its voting rights in the European Council.

The European Parliament has also approved a draft report on the overwhelming rule of law breaches in Poland, and the Council of Europe is monitoring the situation.

The IRK’s press release is available here (in Dutch), and there are also other cases concerning judicial independence in Poland pending before the Court of Justice.