Dutch court escalates rule of law battle with Poland

An Amsterdam court on Wednesday rejected the extradition of a 33-year-old Polish narcotrafficking suspect to his home country, citing rule of law concerns and “a real risk” the defendant wouldn’t get a fair trial in Poland.

The decision to suspend a European Arrest Warrant, under which Polish authorities had requested the suspect’s extradition from the Netherlands, marks a further escalation of the political and legal battle that the Netherlands, other EU countries and the European Commission are locked in with Warsaw over accusations the country is backsliding on rule of law standards.

The Amsterdam court already declared last year that Polish courts are no longer independent, mainly because of a disciplinary system that critics say allows judges to be sanctioned based on the content of their rulings. The Dutch court then asked the EU’s Court of Justice whether extraditions to Poland should generally be suspended.

The top court rejected that request in December, though it said extraditions could still be refused on an individual basis if there are substantial grounds for believing that the accused wouldn’t receive a fair trial. 

The Amsterdam court used this option in its ruling Wednesday, saying in a statement that “there is a danger that the judges in Poland who have to rule on the criminal case of the accused person will not be able to do so freely, partly because of the risk of disciplinary proceedings.”

In justifying its decision, the court also argued this specific case had already been politicized in Poland: By requesting input from the Court of Justice, the proceedings against the Polish suspect “not only attracted the wide interest of politics and media in Poland but also the special interest of Polish authorities belonging to the executive,” the statement said.

“This is evidenced by, among other things, a memo from the prosecutor general to all Polish prosecutors, which discusses this particular case,” the statement said. “There is a danger that the systemic deficiencies [of the Polish judicial system] will actually affect the proceedings of the accused person.”