Raf v. Spain

Information Note on the Court’s case-law 54

June 2003

Raf v. Spain - 53652/00

Judgment 17.6.2003 [Section IV]

Article 5

Article 5-1-f

Extradition

Period to be examined with regard to detention with a view to extradition: no violation

Facts: The applicant is currently in prison in France. He was arrested in Spain in April 1997 on suspicion of being a member of a gang specialising in producing false identity papers and placed in provisional detention. At the same time, extradition proceedings were commenced and the applicant was ordered to be detained pending extradition under an international arrest warrant issued following an international detention order made by a French judge. Two years later, the Spanish investigating judge ordered the applicant’s release; the applicant remained in detention for extradition purposes. In May 1999, the Málaga Audiencia Provincial sentenced the applicant to eight years’ imprisonment and a fine. In May 2000, the court decided that the applicant could be temporarily handed over to the French authorities pending examination of his appeal by the Supreme Court. The French authorities agreed that the applicant should be temporarily handed over; the Audiencia Nacional made an order to that effect in January 2001, pursuant to the European Convention on Extradition. The applicant was handed over to the French authorities in February 2001.

Law: Article 5 – (a) The lawfulness of the detention: The applicant’s detention by the Spanish authorities was always covered by one of the exceptions to Article 5 § 1 of the Convention, whether in paragraph (c), (f) or (a). The applicant therefore enjoyed sufficient guarantees to be protected from an arbitrary deprivation of freedom.

(b) The duration of detention pending extradition: The applicant was only in detention pending extradition, in the conditions provided for in Article 5 § 1 (f) of the Convention, during two periods: between April 1999, the day on which he was released for the purposes of the proceedings in Spain, and May 1999, the date of his conviction, and between January 2001, the date of the decision of the Spanish authorities to hand him over to the French authorities, and February 2001, the date on which he was actually handed over to the French authorities. That duration is not unreasonable.

Conclusion: no violation (unanimously).

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes

Full & Egal Universal Law Academy