The Supreme Court has ordered the release of a man who was in custody on foot of warrants seeking his extradition to Germany to complete a 5½-year jail sentence for rape. However, the three-judge court stressed yesterday that its decision to free Anthony Abimbola did not prevent the issuing in Germany of a European arrest warrant.
Mr Abimbola, from Nigeria, attended his trial in Germany but fled to the Netherlands before his conviction in October 2000. He was arrested here in July 2006. The German authorities had made a request for his extradition under part II of the Extradition Act 1965.
Mr Justice Nial Fennelly yesterday gave the Supreme Court's judgment allowing Mr Abimbola's appeal against a High Court order for his extradition.
The judge upheld arguments by Dr Michael Forde SC, for Mr Abimbola, that the German request ceased to be effective from November 2004 when, as part of the procedures for the coming into force of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, the Minister for Foreign Affairs had made a statutory order revoking the application of part II of the 1965 Act to Germany.
The subsequent arrest of Mr Abimbola and all later procedures in relation to his proposed surrender to Germany were invalid, he found. Mr Abimbola could not be extradited to Germany under the request made under the 1965 Act, his detention was unlawful and he must be released.
The judge noted the Minister for Justice had in June 2006 certified that he had received the German request under the 1965 Act on September 5th, 2003.
However, that certificate relied on a Government order of December 19th, 2000, as having applied part II of the 1965 Act to Germany when that order had been revoked by then.
Mr Abimbola was arrested here in July 2006 under a warrant issued by the High Court under the 1965 Act and his extradition was ordered by that court. Mr Justice Fennelly said it was not disputed that a European arrest warrant might be issued seeking the surrender of Mr Abimbola to Germany, but those procedures had not yet been invoked.