1. Dr. Željko Karas Police College, Zagreb (Croatia)
Defendants' Complaints against Police Work in European Arrest Warrant Proceedings
Dr. Željko Karas
Police College, Zagreb (Croatia)

2. 1. The European Arrest Warrant (EAW)
Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States
EAW - a judicial decision issued by a Member State with a view to the arrest and surrender by another Member State of a requested person, for the purposes of conducting a criminal prosecution or executing a custodial sentence or detention order
Member States shall execute any EAW on the basis of the principle of mutual recognition and in accordance with the provisions of this Framework Decision

3. a warrant may be issued for acts punishable by the law of the issuing Member State by a custodial sentence or a detention order for a maximum period of at least 12 months or, where a sentence has been passed or a detention order has been made, for sentences of at least four months
list of 32 offences if they are punishable in the issuing Member State by a custodial sentence or a detention order for a maximum period of at least three years, shall ‘without verification of the double criminality of the act’ give rise to surrender
abolishes, in principle, the traditional rule of dual criminality, which is a logical consequence of its underlying principle of mutual recognition
for offences not listed in Article 2(2) the executing State may still require dual criminality (Art. 2(4)) and it may also do so for the listed offences to the extent that they are not punishable in the issuing Member State by a deprivation of liberty for three years or more
a core feature is that the surrender process is almost entirely judicial in nature

4. the first elaboration of the mutual recognition principle
a genuine paradigm shift in legal cooperation between Member States
the EAW is based on the principle (subject to limitations and exceptions) that Member States automatically recognize each other’s judicial decisions ordering the arrest of a person

5. 2. Croatia and the EU
The EU enlargement – Croatia - 28th EU member
implementation in Croatia - into force 1 July 2013
Act on Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters with EU Members
changes of Constitution in 2010
surrendering own citizens to other state

6. 3. Aim of the Research
the aim of this research is to identify how police investigation was treated during the first years of enforcing EAW in Croatia
in domestic procedures, a police work is very often directed by defendants
this part of the research is based on the sample made of decisions of the Supreme Court of Croatia delivered in the period 2013– (N=121)
the sample includes all available final decisions regarding complaints against decisions of first instance courts on the execution of the EAW
the research was focused on defendants’ allegations that the police work and crime investigation had questionable results that are obstacles for surrendering

7. 4. Results
the results of the research show that only in few cases the remarks concerned alleged misconduct of foreign police, or the quality of evidence collected by a police
the current analysis indicates that police work hasn’t been prevailing ground for complaints, and it did not have any significant impact on performing the EAW
determining identity of foreign perpetrator, in absence of appropriate evidence is showed as a main difficulty in police work.

8. 4.1. STATES THAT HAD ISSUED ORDER
Germany 36
Slovenia 36
Austria 20
Italy 9
Other 20

9. 4.2. TYPE OF CRIME property crime 43 murders 2 bodily harm 7
traffic crimes 8
narcotics 6
other 55

10. 4.3. PURPOSE OF ORDER
surrendering 67
execution of penalty 54

11. 4.4. QUESTIONABLE POLICE WORK
only in 6 cases
constitutes 8% of surrenders
claims on mistaken identity, stolen passport, lack of evidence, insufficient investigation
most of them unfounded
only 1 case - court deleyed the order and asked further information

12. 4.5. Case Study
perpetrator found in Italy, driving a car with German plates
driving license from Croatia, without any other documents
later discovered that person's driving licence has never been issued in Croatia
serial number of that licence belongs to other licence
photo in license was not similar to searched person
Other person M. was under secret surveillance in Italy
used false license earlier, police not having his photo or other details
Kz-eun 5/13-4

13. 5. CONCLUSION
the research results indicate that crime investigations conducted by foreign police were well performed and therefore they did not present special issue in proceedings judicial stages of proceedings assure that that EAW is properly grounded, and that the main difficulties may rise in some other aspects of proceedings
in most of analysed cases, defendants based their complaints on procedural rules, such as double jeopardy, limitation, as well as on some other aspects of the procedure
the research results concern primarily the Croatian system, however the particular role of police is imminent to every legal system in the EU that recently introduced the EAW

14. significantly lesser objections on police work in investigation
claims were very rare, most of them are unfounded
in a domestic procedure, claims on police work are more often
all facts are already checked, judicial procedure is ensuring quality
any doubtful cases has already been selected
EAW - enhancing trust and mutual cooperation between countries

15. Dr. Željko Karas Police College, Zagreb (Croatia)
Defendants' Complaints against Police Work in European Arrest Warrant Proceedings
Dr. Željko Karas
Police College, Zagreb (Croatia)