10 Putting human rights at the heart of the EAW Used to prosecute petty crime The EAW is regularly used to surrender people who committed small offences, often years before, and who have built a new life in another country. Research conducted in Poland, for example, shows that the catalogue of situations in which the EAW may be issued is wide. This includes driving under the influence of alcohol, drug possession or small theft. The EAW may be executed even if the convicted person fulfils the duties imposed by the judgement, does not avoid police supervision, finds a job and pays the fine. Similar cases were documented in Lithuania, Romania and Spain, such as the surrender to Spain of a person alleged to have stolen two radio CD players. In Lithuania, 2009 amendments to the rules governing the EAW have limited its use for minor crimes. And Lithuanian Supreme Court case law has limited the application of orders that people must cover the cost of their extradition transportation to cases where people have absconded. However, cases indicate that these practices continue. Case study Examples from Lithuania Kaunas District Court, case no. 1128-246/2017, 17 May 2017 Kaunas District Court, case no. 1270-573/2017, 16 January 2016 In 2016 a Lithuanian national was surrendered from the United Kingdom to be prosecuted for a small-scale theft, i.e. a mobile phone and bottle of perfume. The person spent almost 2 months in detention in the United Kingdom, awaiting surrender, and another one and a half month in Lithuania. After the trial he ended up receiving a sentence of 3 months 8 days, the exact number of days, he spent in pre-trial detention. In another case from 2016, a Lithuanian national, surrendered from Germany, was ordered to pay the 1.836 euros of his transportation expenses by the court. The costs were awarded despite the fact that the person moved to Germany for employment rather than to abscond, and he was unaware of the criminal investigation. A mechanism designed to tackle complex cross-border crime is being used for petty crimes Case study Jozef Surrendered from Hungary to Romania Jozef is a farmer who was sentenced to four years in prison for cutting down trees in a forest with some of his friends to give to their families as Christmas trees. They were caught by the police who confiscated the Christmas trees, took statements, and released them. They didn’t say anything about a fine or prison sentence. Later, Jozef was stopped in a routine check after taking a job in Hungary. The police in Hungary told him that there was an EAW in his name and they took him to jail and held him for nearly two months before surrendering him to Romania. Jozef is a member of the Hungarian ethnic minority group in Romania, does not speak fluent Romanian and is illiterate. After being surrendered to Romania, he was not provided “It’s really difficult. It’s hard to be so far away. I miss the children.” with any documents explaining why he had been arrested or was under investigation, and was not provided with an interpreter through which that information could have been conveyed to him orally. Eventually he was convicted and imprisoned for four years for theft. He continues to serve his sentence today in a heavily overcrowded prison cell. “ey told me there was an international warrant on my name, from Romania. en they took me into custody and then to prison. I didn’t know that there was a lawsuit against me.”