EAW: boring but important!

My previous warnings about the pernicious European Arrest Warrant have been greeted largely with yawns. But the abuse of the EWA could affect any of us.

Here’s yet another.

‘A single mother detained under a European arrest warrant (EAW) fears she will have to hand her young child to local authority care if she loses her battle against extradition to Poland.

The case of Natalia Gorczowska, 23, wanted in her native country for failing to complete a suspended sentence for a minor drugs offence, is being cited as an example of the conveyor belt-style of justice enforced by the EAW system.

British courts, which do not assess the substance or seriousness of allegations, have agreed to her removal. But the order has been stayed temporarily by a last-minute appeal to the European court of human rights (ECHR).

Her case has emerged at a time of mounting political criticism of the UK's extradition arrangements with the EU and US. The government is due to respond shortly to a review of procedures produced last year by Sir Scott Baker.

Gorczowska, who now lives in Norfolk, was originally convicted in December 2006 for possession of 4g of amphetamine, for which she was given a 10-month suspended sentence.

The conditions of her sentence were that she abstain from drugs and find employment. She left Poland to find work before her suspended sentence had expired because her father bought her a flight ticket to Britain. She is no longer taking drugs, the courts have been told, and is employed in the UK.

Her case has been taken up by Fair Trials International, which is campaigning to reform the use of EAWs, warning that they are often served disproportionately for minor offences.

Poland, where prosecutors exercise no discretion over whether to pursue individuals, issues more than any other EU state. In 2009/10 it sent the UK 2,403 EAWs; the next largest was Germany, which issued the UK with 235 arrest warrants.

Extradition requests have been sent out from Warsaw for minor offenders such as individuals going overdrawn on bank accounts, piglet thieves and cake snatchers. The Home Office has asked Poland to change its procedures.

"Extradition should be reserved for the most serious cases," said Jago Russell, chief executive of Fair Trials International, "but under the EU's fast-track system, thousands of people are now being extradited every year often for the most petty crimes’.