EU Court of Justice Delivers Its Judgment on Extradition

On September 6, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Grand Chamber, delivered its judgment in the Case C-182/15 Aleksei Petruhhin. The ruling concerns the limits of the protection against extradition. The Court decided that a Member State of the European Union is not required to grant every Union citizen who has moved within its territory the same protection against extradition as that granted to its own nationals. However, before extraditing the citizen, the Member State concerned must give priority to the exchange of information with the Member State of origin and allow that Member State to request the citizen’s surrender for the purposes of prosecution.