Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2021-01/cp210002en.pdf

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Court of Justice of the European Union

PRESS RELEASE No 2/21

Luxembourg, 13 January 2021

Judgment in Case C-414/20 PPU MM

A European arrest warrant must be regarded as being invalid when it is not based on a national arrest warrant or any other enforceable judicial decision having the same effect

It is for the court having jurisdiction in the issuing Member State to determine, in the light of national law, what consequences the absence of a valid national arrest warrant may have on the decision to place and then keep a person in provisional detention who is the subject of a criminal prosecution

Criminal proceedings were initiated in Bulgaria against 41 individuals for having participated in a criminal drug trafficking organisation. Sixteen of them, including, MM, absconded.

By order of 9 August 2019, the Bulgarian investigating body, with the consent of the public prosecutor, placed MM under investigation for having participated in a criminal drug trafficking organisation. As MM had absconded, that order was intended only to inform him of the charges against him.

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