CJEU, criminal law
New judgment in controversial European Arrest Warrant case: Spanish EAW issued for rapper convicted of "glorification of terrorism" due to song lyrics referring to violence will be harder to execute in Belgium.
Short explanation... 1/
New judgment in controversial European Arrest Warrant case: Spanish EAW issued for rapper convicted of "glorification of terrorism" due to song lyrics referring to violence will be harder to execute in Belgium.
Short explanation... 1/
2/ Background: the rapper left Spain for Belgium after the conviction due to his song lyrics. First instance court refused to execute the warrant. After this press story, prosecutors appealed and the appeal court asked CJEU to interpret the EAW law. bbc.com/news/world-eur…
3/ Extradition is usually subject to a "dual criminality" test: ie the alleged offence must be a crime in both jurisdictions. This is one of the arguments of the Assange defence; the counter argument is that the UK has abolished this test in domestic law.
4/ The EAW indisputably abolished the dual criminality test for a list of 32 crimes, including terrorism. But that only applies where the offence could be subject to a sentence of at least three years. Spanish law had lighter sentence when the offence was committed, but raised it
5/ CJEU says today that the penalty in force when the offence was committed applies. This makes it harder to execute the EAW against the rapper, since Belgium will now apply a dual criminality test. 
6/ NB it's not *impossible* to execute the warrant, as the dual criminality test might be satisfied. Also the CJEU was not asked to rule on arguments related to freedom of expression.
7/ Initial response from (I think) one of the rapper's lawyers.
Incidentally the CJEU's anonymity policy is very, very silly on the facts of this case.
Incidentally the CJEU's anonymity policy is very, very silly on the facts of this case.
