EU warrants issued for 200 criminals

ARREST warrants for almost 200 criminals at large here, including murderers and rapists, were received by the Justice Minister from other EU countries last year.

The figures show that 26 Irish criminal suspects were sought, as well as nationals from a host of other countries, including 81 people from Poland.

In the opposite direction, Justice Minister Dermot Ahern issued 40 arrest warrants to other EU states last year for crimes that included murder, sexual offences, drugs offences, assault and robbery, and arson.

The figures are contained in the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) Annual Report published today, which also shows that 73 people were surrendered to other European Union member states in 2008. Of those, 32 went to Britain and 17 to Poland.

In all, 198 EAWs were received by the Department of Justice from member states last year, 26 regarding Irish nationals, 15 regarding British nationals, 26 involving Lithuanian nationals, 81 involving Polish and 11regarding Romanians.

Nationals of 19 countries, including Sudan, Kosovo and Columbia, were sought in Ireland during 2008 for a variety of offences. In 20 cases the offence was murder, with 11 of those requests from Britain, and in 13 cases people were sought for sexual offences including rape and sexual abuse of children, again most from Britain.

Assault and robbery accounted for 81 cases, with 39 of those involving Poles, while people were sought for drugs offences in 25 cases and for fraud in 28 cases.

The number of arrest warrants executed is still considerably lower than the number received, however, with the report indicating 193 European arrest warrants received between 2004 and 2007 were still ongoing at the start of last year.

Despite the inability to execute arrest warrants in some cases both here and EU member states, Mr Ahern is expected to say today that the EAW system has been a success in improving law enforcement across the EU, ensuring an individual wanted for trial in one country cannot escape justice by moving to another state. He will also point out that amendments to the act were made in Part 2 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 which came into force on August 25.

A new provision on the transmission of documents allows for the use of modern means of communication, including email, while the amendment also allows for the taking of identification material (fingerprints, palm prints and photographs) of persons arrested under the Act to assist in establishing their identity.

Under the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 the minister is the centralauthority who forwards the warrants to the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, following consultation with the Attorney General. An application is then made to the High Court.