Verdict No extradition in case of big tightness in jail

OLG Stuttgart rejects extradition to Romania

Stuttgart (jur). Germany may not extradite suspected offenders to Romania. Decent prison conditions are currently not guaranteed there, as the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Stuttgart ruled in a resolution published on Saturday, August 14, 2016 (Ref .: 1 Ausl. 6/16).

In this case, Romania had requested the arrest and extradition of a Romanian national in Germany. The man was therefore arrested and taken into custody on the orders of the OLG Stuttgart.

However, from the outset, the OLG had doubts about the conditions of detention in Romania. It therefore called on the Public Prosecutor's Office to clarify whether Romania assures accommodation in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Prison Rules.

Romania replied that the concrete prison is not yet known. In any case, the alleged offender - including bed and other furniture - will have "a personal space of two or three square meters".

Based on that, the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart refused delivery. A decent housing is not given in such a "Einerkerkerungszimmer". Nor does that change the fact that Romania had guaranteed sufficient ventilation and "optimum temperature", according to the decision of 17 June 2016.

On 5 April 2016, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) also declared extradition in Luxembourg inadmissible if inhumane conditions of imprisonment threatened; even a European arrest warrant should then not be enforced (Ref .: C-659/15, JurAgentur message from the sentencing day). In this case, each inmate had only about two square meters in an overcrowded Romanian prison. The OLG Bremen, which had called the European Court of Justice, then refused the extradition (decision of 6 June 2016, ref. 1 Ausl A 23/15, JurAgentur report dated 10 June 2016). Mwo / fle