Criminal proceedings with a foreign element are like a game in which each side plays by different rules and the referee speaks a third language. A European arrest warrant, an extradition request, prosecution abroad, a foreign national detained in the Czech Republic: all of these are situations where ordinary defence work meets international law and where mistakes are easy to make, because nobody knows who is actually responsible for what.
Worth knowing
- Surrender proceedings have short deadlines. The court decides quickly, and detention pending surrender is the rule rather than the exception. A defence lawyer has to get into the case immediately, not after the first decision.
- Surrender can be refused, or made conditional. There are grounds on which a state will not hand a person over, and guarantees it can demand (for example, return home to serve the sentence). But they have to be raised; they do not appear by themselves.
- Proceedings abroad will not wait. While you are dealing with surrender in the Czech Republic, deadlines and procedural steps are running in the other country. You need someone who understands both sides and can talk to a colleague abroad.
Who handles this here
International judicial cooperation in criminal matters and immigration law are among the fields the lawyer behind this website practises alongside ordinary criminal defence. Communication is possible in English too. If you are a foreign national in Czech proceedings, or a Czech in foreign ones, there is someone here who knows whom to call.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 203 ZMJSEuropean arrest warrant: conditions, for which acts it may be issued
- § 205 ZMJSpreliminary inquiry and detention pending surrender
Case law
- IV. ÚS 683/17 (Ústavní soud, 25. 4. 2017)conditions for preliminary detention: the person, the basis for the arrest warrant, the act, the upper sentencing limit; the conditions are alternative
- III. ÚS 2391/09 (Ústavní soud, 27. 10. 2009)the arrest warrant is often served on the person to be surrendered only during the preliminary inquiry; even so they must have an opportunity to defend themselves
- 11 Nt 1/2008 (Nejvyšší soud, 27. 6. 2008)a detained person must also be instructed that by consenting to the simplified procedure they lose the possibility of making surrender conditional on return home
A different situation?
- You or someone close to you has been detained
- Pre-trial detention is looming, or someone is already in it
- A police summons has arrived
- Criminal complaint: you want to file one, or one has been filed against you
- You have been charged with a criminal offence
- A penal order has arrived
- Alcohol or drugs behind the wheel, driving ban
- Plea agreement, conditional discontinuation
- House search
- You have become the victim of a crime
- Charged with embezzlement
- Disorderly conduct: a brawl, a pub, the street
- Dangerous threats and stalking
- You drove while banned from driving
- Charged with bodily harm
- Damage to property
- Violation of the inviolability of the home
- Defamation
- Conditional release from prison
- Negligent homicide: a fatal accident
- Credit fraud and subsidy fraud