Eamon Harrison, a 22 year old lorry driver for Northern Ireland has appeared in court facing extradition to the UK from the Republic of Ireland on charges of manslaughter, conspiracy to commit human trafficking and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were discovered in a lorry container in Essex on 23 October 2019.
Mr Harrison is believed to have delivered the container to a Belgian port before its onward journey to the UK. Having subsequently travelled onwards to Ireland, he was arrested there pursuant to a European Arrest Warrant which was certified by the Irish court on 1 November 2019.
Tony McGillicudy BL, who appeared for Mr Harrison’s at the High Court hearing, told Mr Justice Binchy that Mr Harrison’s draft points of objection relate to the “contents of the warrant” and “conflicts” on the face of the warrant. Mr McGillicudy further told the court that one potential issue is a challenge connected with section 44 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, a particularly “difficult section” of the legislation.
Section 44 of the 2003 Act states that a person cannot be surrendered if the offence in the arrest warrant was committed in a place other than the issuing state, The was found to be an absolute bar to the extradition of Ian Bailey from Ireland to France to be tried for the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork in 1996.
The court was told that no application for bail was being made but an application for additional senior counsel to represent Mr Harrison was put before the court and approved. The extradition hearing remains set for November 21, however, Mr Justice Binchy acknowledged that there will be limitation as to what can be done on that date.
Categories: Ireland, United Kingdom
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