Suspects freed due to warrant delays

THREE suspects wanted for crimes across Europe were freed from custody in Ireland last year because their arrest warrants were not processed on time.

Such delay-based releases only happened eight times across the entire EU, in a period when 3,159 prisoners were transferred under valid arrest warrants.

A Council of Europe survey revealed Ireland was significantly slower at bringing suspects before the courts and reaching decisions on European Arrest Warrant (EAW) requests.