In Minister for Justice v. Rajki, the Irish High Court granted an order to surrender an alleged offender to Hungary under a European arrest warrant, despite evidence of inhuman and degrading treatment in Hungarian prisons.
The respondent was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Republic of Hungary on charges of "swindling". Section 37 of the European Arrest Warrant Act of 2003 states that a person shall not be surrendered under the Act if that person’s fundamental rights would be violated by the surrender. The respondent argued that according to the section 37 rule, he should not be surrendered as he would be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in a Hungarian prison. The respondent based his argument upon his personal experience of Hungarian prisons, country of origin information and criticisms of Hungarian prison conditions in the U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report on Hungary, information published on the Hungarian Prison Service’s website and relevant decisions of the European Court of Human Rights concerning Hungarian prison conditions.
Judge Edwards held that, “in my judgment the evidence adduced by the respondent lacks the degree of cogency necessary to displace the presumption that the issuing state will respect the respondent’s fundamental rights…The court is not therefore disposed to uphold the s.37 objections in this case…The Court is disposed in all the circumstances to surrender the respondent”.