Eu Court shuts down extradition loophole for Romanian convicts: extradition can’t be denied over missing Romanian judges’ oath records / Key decision for Maltese Justice in Paul of Romania case

The EU Court of Justice (CJUE) overturned on Monday a strategy used by the so-called Prince Paul of Romania and other convicts fleeing Romanian justice. The CJUE panel, which included President Koen Lenaerts, decided that magistrates in an EU member state cannot refuse extradition to Romania on the grounds that Romanian authorities cannot find the record of the oath-taking by the judges who convicted the fugitives.

“The judicial authority executing a European arrest warrant issued for the purpose of enforcing a sentence cannot refuse to execute this arrest warrant on the grounds that the record of the oath-taking of a judge who passed this sentence cannot be found or that another judge on the same panel only took the oath upon their appointment as a prosecutor,” the EU Court of Justice decision stated.

The EU Court of Justice thus accepted the argument of the DNA (the National Anticorruption Directorate of Romania), which submitted a viewpoint to the CJUE.

Paul of Romania relied on this strategy when contesting the extradition warrant issued by Romania in France. In 2023, Paul of Romania argued before the Paris judiciary, where he fled from Romania, that one of the judges on the High Court panel had not taken the oath 25 years ago.

In November 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected the request from Bucharest authorities to bring Paul Philippe of Romania back to Romania, who claimed that the extradition request was made “for political purposes.” The Extradition Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal refused the surrender “due to a real risk of violating the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.”

The CJUE’s decision is also related to the current trial in Malta, where Paul of Romania was again apprehended by authorities and contested the extradition warrant on the grounds that Romanian prison standards are too low.

Thus, the CJUE decided that the judiciary in an EU member state (in this case, Malta) “cannot refuse to execute a European arrest warrant based on elements concerning detention conditions in the issuing member state obtained by itself and for which it did not request additional information from the issuing judicial authority. The executing judicial authority cannot apply a higher standard regarding detention conditions than that guaranteed in this article.”

A judge in Malta rejected in May the extradition of Paul of Romania, who was definitively sentenced to prison in the corruption case known as the “Băneasa Farm.” The Maltese judge argued that there was “a real risk” that Paul of Romania’s fundamental rights would be violated if he were extradited.

Paul of Romania was put on the wanted list in December 2020 after fleeing Romania before being definitively sentenced by the Supreme Court to 3 years and 4 months in prison in the case of the illegal restitution of the Băneasa Royal Farm, in a case prosecuted by the DNA.

On June 27, 2022, he was caught on the street in Paris, and upon checks, he presented a passport issued by British authorities. In September, he was released from prison by a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, being placed under judicial supervision.