Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2020-11/cp200146en.pdf

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Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 146/20

Luxembourg, 24 November 2020

Judgment in Case C-510/19

Openbaar Ministerie and YU and ZV v AZ

Public prosecutors in the Netherlands do not constitute an ‘executing judicial authority’ in connection with the execution of a European arrest warrant, given that they may be subject to instructions in specific cases from the Netherlands Minister for Justice

In September 2017, a European arrest warrant (‘EAW’) was issued by a Belgian investigating judge against AZ, a Belgian national, who was accused of forgery of documents, use of forged documents and fraud. In December 2017, AZ was arrested in the Netherlands and surrendered to the Belgian authorities pursuant to a decision of the rechtbank Amsterdam (District Court, Amsterdam, Netherlands). In January 2018, the investigating judge which issued the EAW issued an additional EAW for acts other than those for which AZ had been surrendered, thus requesting the competent Netherlands authorities to disapply the rule of speciality provided for by the Framework Decision on the EAW. 1 According to that rule, a person surrendered to the issuing Member State pursuant to an EAW may not be prosecuted, sentenced or otherwise deprived of his or her liberty for an offence committed prior to his or her surrender other than that for which he or she was surrendered, unless the executing judicial authority has given its consent. 2 In February 2018, the officier van justitie (public prosecutor) for the arrondissementsparket Amsterdam (Public Prosecutor’s Office for the Amsterdam District, Netherlands) gave his consent to extend the scope of the prosecution in accordance with the additional EAW. In Belgium, AZ was thus prosecuted in respect of the acts referred to in the initial EAW and the additional EAW and sentenced to a threeyear prison term.