Anusiewicz v Circuit Court In Zamosc, Poland & Anor

MR JUSTICE COLLINS: This is an appeal under section 26 of the Extradition Act 2003 against a decision of District Judge Purdy given on 31 October 2012, directing the appellant's return to Poland to serve a total sentence outstanding of something just over 2 years and 5 months imposed for a number of offences of what can broadly speaking be described as human trafficking or immigration offences.

The appellant is no longer represented and has put forward two matters in support of his appeal. First, he asserts that the details given of the conviction show that they were based upon a lack of cogent material, and there was insufficient, he says, to justify the convictions. That is not a matter which I can go into in this court. The offences are set out. The allegations, if proved, are sufficient to amount to offences which would, if committed in this country, clearly be able to be prosecuted in this country and so are extradition offences, and if there are any defects in the convictions, that would have been a matter for appeal in Poland. That is not a ground which can be relied on before me.

Before the District Judge, an application was made for an adjournment in order to obtain further medical evidence. The appellant suffers from a lump in his neck, and there are other lumps in other parts of his body which concern him. Obviously he is afraid that they may not all be benign. His claim essentially is that he may need medical treatment which would not be so satisfactory were he to be in Poland, and certainly in prison conditions in Poland.

The District Judge refused an adjournment. The matter was pursued in the notice of appeal. In fact, there were two, one in person and one through the representatives, but nothing turns on that. The application was pursued before this court when he was represented.

The difficulty in his path is that there is no reason to believe that he would not receive all treatment that is necessary in Poland. It may be he takes the view that the Polish system is not as efficient in dealing with medical matters such as he faces as in this country. Whether he is correct or not is not for me to say, but there is certainly no reason to believe that he would not be able to receive any treatment that is regarded as necessary to safeguard his health and his life if that really arises.

Accordingly, nothing has been put before me which justifies me allowing the appeal and therefore I have to dismiss it. However, when he is removed all medical records must be provided so that they are available to the authorities in Poland. Subject to that, this appeal must be dismissed.

Make sure that it is known that I have directed that your medical notes must accompany you back to Poland.

APPELLANT: I was writing to the hospital requesting them to provide me with the copies of all the MRIs I had done, however they never replied to me.

MR JUSTICE COLLINS: The hospital should produce those before you are removed, or if they cannot do that before, then they must make arrangements that they be sent to Poland.

What I am going to put in the court's order so that it can be shown is that the hospital must produce the copies of the scans. You have had MRI scans have you? So there will be a DVD of those, and all medical notes from the prison, in addition, must go to Poland. Ideally they should accompany you to Poland. So what the order will say is that all medical records, both in the form of hospital MRI scans and medical notes from the prison, must go to Poland so as to be available to the Polish authorities. I am afraid, that is the most I can do for you.