Peter Haynes KC succeeds in High Court extradition appeal

Peter Haynes KC, leading Ben Joyes of 9 Bedford Row, succeeds in a High Court Appeal against the extradition of a Romanian citizen.

In Gigo v Romania, an appeal was made to the High Court by way of judicial review from an order for extradition made by Westminster Magistrates Court in May 2023. The appeal was based on Article 8 of the ECHR and section 25 of the Extradition Act 2003. 

The appellant had serious mental health issues and had been deemed unfit to plead and stand trial by a psychiatrist. Romania requested his extradition to serve various sentences for offences of which he had been convicted in his absence.

The appellant argued that he had an automatic right to retrials, having been convicted in his absence but, given that he was currently unfit to stand trial (and would be for the foreseeable future), it was oppressive to send him back to Romania owing to the state of his mental health. 

Alternatively, he argued that extradition was disproportionate to his Article 8 rights, given that he had served the entirety of his sentence in the UK on remand. He succeeded on the latter point, which the prosecution conceded just before the hearing in the High Court.