Extradition, EAW & Interpol · 2022-01-09
Our client had been extradited from Canada to Italy. Following his extradition, Italian authorities attempted to prosecute him for offences that had not been included in the extradition request — a clear violation of the speciality principle. We challenged this and obtained a ruling blocking the additional prosecution.
The speciality principle is a fundamental rule of international extradition law: a person extradited by one state to another may only be prosecuted or punished for the offences in respect of which extradition was granted. Any attempt to prosecute for other offences requires specific consent from the extraditing state. This principle protects individuals from being surrendered for one purpose and then prosecuted for entirely different conduct.
After our client's extradition from Canada, Italian authorities sought to add new charges to the proceedings — charges that had not been included in the extradition request and for which Canadian consent had never been sought. We filed an immediate challenge, arguing that proceeding with these additional charges would violate the bilateral extradition treaty between Italy and Canada and the speciality principle embedded in it.
The speciality principle is not a technicality — it is a foundational safeguard of the international extradition system. Canada extradited our client on specific terms. Attempting to prosecute him beyond those terms is a treaty violation that the Italian court must remedy.
The Italian court upheld our challenge. The prosecution of the additional charges was blocked as a violation of the speciality principle. Our client's exposure was limited to the specific offences for which Canada had consented to extradition.
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