EXTRADITION: LACK OF EXTRADITION TREATY BETWEEN ITALY AND ALGERIA, DOUBLE CRIMINALITY AND SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

On 14 September 2022 the Court of Appeal in Rome declared that the conditions for granting the requested person's extradition to Algeria were not met, as a result of Judgment No. 9211 issued on 17 March 2022 by the Italian Supreme Court, which upheld our defense arguments.

An Algerian citizen was arrested in Rome in July 2021 on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice referring an arrest warrant issued by the Algerian Authorities for the purpose of conducting a criminal prosecution for incitement to commit terrorist acts and possessing terrorist material.

It is important to point out that the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria has not signed the European Convention of Extradition and there is not a bilateral extradition treaty between Italy and Algeria. Therefore, in extradition proceedings, the only instrument applicable in the relations between the requesting State and the requested State is the “international courtesy”, with the meaning to extend the same treatment to the country receiving the application should the latter elect to cooperate. In this case, the control of serious indicia of guilt needs to be more rigorous, as provided for in the Italian code of criminal procedure when a pretrial detention measure is issued.

On 18 November 2021 the Court of Appeal in Rome decided to grant the extradition to Algeria, on the ground that the extradition request and the information received from the Algerian Authorities were sufficient for the purposes of determining that there was a high probability that the requested person had committed the offences in question.

An appeal against this judgement was submitted to the Supreme Court on the basis that the Court of Appeal did not consider that, in case of lack of an Extradition Treaty, the control of serious indicia of guilt needs to be more rigorous and, in addition, the requirement of dual criminality is lacking because in Italy the mere possession of terrorist material is not a crime when publication or dissemination is not proven.

On 10 February 2022, the Supreme Court (Judgement n. 9211 delivered on 17 March 2022) quashed the judgment and referred the case back to a different section of the Court of Appeal in Rome (to ensure that the matter did not come before the same judges) in order that more specific and precise information on the alleged offences could be requested and considered.

After several hearings in the referral process, only in July 2022 the Algerian Authorities sent the requested supplementary information but, in fact, nothing new has been added. Evidence of the alleged crimes remained vague and inconsistent.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeal held on 14 September 2022 that the documents received were not sufficient to establish the existence of a high probability that the applicant had committed the crimes in question. Moreover, the mere possession of terrorist material does not allow the wanted person to be considered a member of a terrorist organization if it is not supported by revealing elements of contacts between the individual and the structure of the association.

Therefore, the Court of Appeal ruled that the conditions for considering extradition legal were not met and rejected the Algerian request with the immediate release of the requested person.