Non-nationals could await trial in home country

THE Irish prison population could be significantly reduced if the EU rules that non-nationals can be sent back to their home country to await trial.

If approved, the move would save the taxpayer about €6 million a year.

Ireland has the highest proportion (14%) of foreign prisoners awaiting trial of six states surveyed.

Europe’s justice ministers are to be asked to change the rules so suspects from other member states will not be automatically locked up.

As a result, Irish people accused of crimes such as traffic offences in other EU countries would be sent home and not held in jail during investigation and before their trial.

The proposal from the European Commission was welcomed by the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) as a positive move.

A European survey shows that an average of 10% of remand prisoners in EU jails are from other member countries and are simply waiting to be tried for less serious offences. But judges normally refuse them bail in case they do not turn up for their court case.

According to the Irish Prison Service, 14% or 74 of the 523 prisoners waiting to be tried here are from other EU countries.

Ireland also has the costliest prison service, €84,800 per remand prisoner in 2005. Sweden is next at €72,270 and in Latvia, the cheapest, it costs €3,168 a year per inmate.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said yesterday the ruling would end discrimination against EU non-nationals awaiting trial.

“It would strengthen the right to liberty and the presumption of innocence, allowing non-resident EU citizen suspects to return to their home member states instead of being unnecessarily kept in pre-trial detention in another member state,” he said.

The proposal, if agreed by all 25 EU countries, would affect about 8,000 prisoners a year, he said.

Chairperson of the IPRT, barrister Claire Hamilton, said spending time in a foreign jail was particularly stressful for people.

“They are in a foreign environment, may not speak the language and can lose their job in their home country while waiting for their case to be heard in court,” she said.

At present there is no mechanism to ensure that non-nationals will turn up for their trial if they are released on bail.

This new proposal would mean all EU countries would recognise one another’s decisions in relation to bail for instance. In this way a suspect would be returned for trial if he did not do so voluntarily.

Said Mr Frattini: “This would allow the suspect to be subject to a supervision measure in his normal environment, it would reduce discrimination against non- resident suspects and reduce the number of pre-trial detainees in the EU. It would also better recognise the right to liberty and the presumption of innocence in the EU as a whole.”

The member states will have to all agree to the proposal before it could come into force, possibly in 2008.

The Department of Justice said it had not studied the proposal yet.