Extradition: risk of discrimination and prison conditions in Ukraine

The Rome Court of Appeal decided to extradite to Ukraine an Ukranian national accused of serious fraud, regardless of the fact that he ran the risk of being exposed to inhuman and degrading treatment in prison because of a recurrent structural problem of poor conditions of pre-trial detention, situation for which on 30 January 2020 the European Court of Human Rights decided to apply the pilot-judgment procedure against Ukraine. Additionally, the requested person was a pro-Russian who used to live close to the border of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and he moved to Moscow when the civil war broke out.

An appeal against this extradition was submitted to the Supreme Court on the basis that the Court of Appeal failed to request promptly any information regarding detention conditions and others relevant circumstances in Ukraine, despite the evidence of the systemic deficiencies and the risk of discrimination was provided to the Court through a pleading, having regards also to the recent ECtHR pilot judgment against Ukraine.

 The Supreme Court, with decision n. 28831/2020, quashed the judgment and referred the case back to a different section of the Court of Appeal in Rome in order that more specific and precise information on detention conditions in Ukraine could be requested and considered, especially regarding the treatment in prison of detainees of Russian ethnicity, like the defendant, in light of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.