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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions >> Jama v Senior Public Prosecutor, Gera, Germany [2013] EWHC 3276 (Admin) (31 October 2013) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2013/3276.html Cite as: [2013] WLR(D) 415, [2014] 1 WLR 1843, [2013] EWHC 3276 (Admin), [2014] WLR 1843 |
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QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
and
MR JUSTICE SILBER
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Ali Jama |
Appellant |
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- and - |
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Senior Public Prosecutor, Gera, Germany |
Respondent |
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Adam Payter (instructed by Crown Prosecution Service) for the Respondent
Hearing date: 9 October 2013
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Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Richards :
(This is the judgment of the Court.)
i) The first is that the appellant placed an order online with TNT for collection of cargo on 31 May 2010. On that date he handed over four parcels to an employee of TNT. Each parcel weighed 13 kg and the four parcels contained a total of about 47 kg of khat, with an active ingredient of 17.89 grammes of cathinone. The parcels were intercepted before they were sent abroad.ii) The second relates to a parcel of khat weighing 6.7 kg which was delivered to an address in Los Angeles pursuant to an order for collection placed online in the same way by the appellant with TNT on 25 May 2010.
iii) The third relates to the placing of an order online by the appellant with TNT for the collection of six parcels for delivery to addresses in the USA and Canada. The parcels contained 475 bundles of khat. The overall amount of khat seized was 94 kg, with an active ingredient of some 30 grammes of cathinone. The parcels were intercepted before they were sent abroad.
The framework list issue
"The conduct constitutes an extradition offence in relation to the category 1 territory if these conditions are satisfied:
(a) the conduct occurs in the category 1 territory and no part of it occurs in the United Kingdom;
(b) a certificate issued by an appropriate authority of the category 1 territory shows that the conduct falls within the European framework list;
(c) the certificate shows that the conduct is punishable under the law of the category 1 territory with imprisonment or another form of detention for a term of 3 years or a greater punishment."
"The following 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 and as they are defined by the law of the issuing Member State, shall, under the terms of this Framework Decision and without verification of the double criminality of the act, give rise to surrender pursuant to a European arrest warrant:
...
illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
…."
"3(1) Each Party shall adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences under its domestic law, when committed intentionally:
(a)(i) The production, manufacture, extraction; preparation, offering, offering for sale, distribution, sale, delivery on any terms whatsoever, brokerage, dispatch, dispatch in transit, transport, importation or exportation of any narcotic drug or any psychotropic substance contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Convention, the 1961 Convention as amended or the 1971 Convention …."
Article 3(11) provides that nothing contained in the article "shall affect the principle that the description of the offences to which it refers and of legal defences thereto is reserved to the domestic law of a Party and that such offences shall be prosecuted and punished in conformity with that law".
"6(1) This article shall apply to the offences established by the Parties in accordance with article 3, paragraph 1.
(2) Each of the offences to which this article applies shall be deemed to be included as an extraditable offence in any extradition treaty existing between Parties. The Parties undertake to include such offences as extraditable offences in every extradition treaty to be concluded between them."
"Paragraph 2 of article 2 of the Framework Decision is central to the main issue in this appeal. It sets out a list of offences which have been conveniently labelled 'framework offences'. These are not so much specific offences as kinds of criminal conduct, described in very general terms. Some of these, such as murder and armed robbery, are likely to feature, expressed in rather similar terms, in any developed criminal code. Others, such as corruption, racism, xenophobia, swindling and extortion, may find different expression in different codes. Included in the list, and relevant to this case, are the offences of trafficking in human beings, facilitation of unauthorised entry and residence and forgery of administrative documents. Underlying the list is an unstated assumption that offences of this character will feature in the criminal codes of all Member States. Article 2(2) accordingly provides that these framework offences, if punishable in the Member State issuing the European arrest warrant by a custodial sentence or detention order for a maximum period of at least three years, and as defined by the law of that state, shall give rise to surrender pursuant to the warrant 'without verification of the double criminality of the act'. This dispensation with the requirement of dual criminality is the feature which distinguishes these framework offences from others. The assumption is that double criminality need not be established in relation to these offences because it can, in effect, be taken for granted …" (emphasis added).
"… But there are some listed drugs which, although they can be synthesised, also occur in the natural state in plants, fungi or animals, and these include some of the most used narcotic drugs. It would not in my view be a natural use of language to say, for instance, that a person was in possession of morphine when what he really had was opium poppy straw from which whatever morphine content there might be in it had not yet been separated; nor do I think it would be apt use of language to describe the poppy straw as a 'preparation or other product' containing morphine, since this expression is inappropriate to something that is found in nature as distinct from something that is man-made. Regarded simply from the point of view of language the matter is in my view put beyond doubt as respects the specific narcotic ingredients found in opium poppies by the inclusion in the list as separate items 'opium' and 'poppy straw' as well as morphine, codeine and several other specified alkaloids which are or may be constituents of opium and of poppy straw. A similar indication of the meaning of references in the Schedule to specific drugs by their scientific names is to be found in the inclusion as separate items of 'cocaine' itself and 'coca leaf' which contains cocaine and from which cocaine can be extracted. I should conclude, therefore, that prima facie a reference in Schedule 2 to a specific drug by its scientific name does not include a reference to any naturally occurring substance of which the specific drug is a constituent but from which it has not yet been separated.
So prima facie one would not suppose that possession of naturally occurring leaf and stalk of the plant cannabis sativa of which a cannabinol derivative, THC, was an unseparated constituent could be charged under the Act as possession of a 'cannabinol derivative'."
It is submitted that that reasoning applies as much to the 1988 Convention as to the domestic statute.
Discussion of the framework list issue
"52. Consequently, even if the Member States reproduce word-for-word the list of the categories of offences set out in Article 2(2) of the Framework Decision for the purposes of its implementation, the actual definition of those offences and the penalties applicable are those which follow from the law of 'the issuing Member State'. The Framework Decision does not seek to harmonise the criminal offences in question in respect of their constituent elements or of the penalties which they attract.
53. Accordingly, while Article 2(2) of the Framework Decision dispenses with verification of double criminality for the categories of offences mentioned therein, the definition of those offences and of the penalties applicable continue to be matters determined by the law of the issuing Member State, which, as is, moreover, stated in Article 1(3) of the Framework Decision, must respect fundamental rights and fundamental legal principles as enshrined in Article 6 EU, and, consequently, the principle of the legality of criminal offences and penalties."
"57. With regard, first, to the choice of the 32 categories of offences listed in Article 2(2) of the Framework Decision, the Council was able to form the view, on the basis of the principle of mutual recognition and in the light of the high degree of trust and solidarity between the Member States, that, whether by reason of their inherent nature or by reason of the punishment incurred of a maximum of at least three years, the categories of offences in question feature among those the seriousness of which in terms of adversely affecting public order and public safety justifies dispensing with the verification of double criminality."
The application of section 64(3): double criminality
"The conduct also constitutes an extradition offence in relation to the category 1 territory if these conditions are satisfied:
(a) the conduct occurs in the category 1 territory;
(b) the conduct would constitute an offence under the law of the relevant part of the United Kingdom if it occurred in that part of the United Kingdom;
(c) the conduct is punishable under the law of the category 1 territory with imprisonment or another form of detention for a term of 12 months or a greater punishment (however it is described in that law)."
Conclusion