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Information About

European Arrest Warrant




The United Kingdom Home Office has defined it as a {Link without Title} :

:''"common arrest and surrender warrant designed to provide efficient and effective justice within the EU, whilst protecting the rights of defendants and victims."


PRINCIPLES OF THE EAW

The EAW is a judicial judgement by a court of the member state for the arrest or surrender of a requested person that is in another member state. This can only be for the purposes of:


The EAW only applies to criminal acts where the sentence is at least 12 months long. It can also be applied for custodial sentences which are at least 4 months long.


HISTORY OF LEGISLATION AND IMPLEMENTATION BY MEMBER STATES

The basis of the EAW was agreed 'in principle' by member states of the EU at the 2003 , with the deadline for final implementation by member states to be December 31 2003 .

The legislation for the EAW came into force for 8 of the then 15 EU countries on January 1 2004 , with the remaining 7 countries missing the deadline. The EAW was active in the following countries by the implementation date:

  • Belgium

  • Denmark

  • Finland

  • Ireland

  • Portugal

  • Spain

  • Sweden

  • UK



USE OF THE EAW

The first reported use of the EAW was in January 2004 when a Swedish suspect was arrested in Spain and extradited back to Sweden {Link without Title} . The EAW was also in the media due to a ruling in , one of the suspects in the 21 July 2005 London Bombings , back to Britain from Italy.


EXTERNAL LINKS