Fiches Belges

In Portugal the competent authorities to execute EAWs and dercid on surrenders are the five Courts of Appeal. When the person against wwhom the EAW is under execution is under detention the decision at the Court of Appeal must be taken in 60 days. This decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court that will decide in a maximum time limit of 30 days. Finally the Constitutional Court, in case there is an appeal, must decide in 60 days. In total a person can be arrested for 150 days pending decision on the EAW. When there is consent though the decision must be taken in 10 days. The national Law reproduced the list of article 2 of the FWD. For offences that are not included inthe list double incrimination must be verified; if it doesn't exist the surrender will be mandatorily refused. In the national Law mandatory causes for refusal are amnesty (when Portuguese authorities are competent as well), ne bis in idem in relation with a final decision taken by an authority of and EU MS and criminal liability. All other causes coincide with the FDW ones and are optional.

The FWD 2002/584/JHA has been transposed by Law 65/2003, from august 23rd, amended by Laws 35/2015 from may 4th and 115/2019, from september 12th.

Executing Portuguese authorities are the five Courts of Appeal (Lisboa, Porto, Coimbra, Évora and Guimarães). The criteria to identify the competent Court of Appeal is territorial (the place where the person has been rarrested or where the EAW has been sent to following information on the person current whereabouts. Issuing Portuguese authorities, according with the Law, are the same as those that internally might order the detentio or arrest of a person.

EAWs must be sent in Portuguese or with a Portuguese translation. Spanish versions, on basis of reciprocity, have been acepted on a case by case basis.

After the decision became final the surrender must be take place in 10 days. Due to force majeur this time limit can be expanded for more 10 days. In special situations (humanitarian casues) the surrender can be suspended. When the cause for suspension extinguishes the surrender must be taken in 10 days counted from the moment the issuing authority is informed of the cease.

National rules on the EAW only apply to EU MS. However surrender procedures to the UK, Norway and Iceland are similar even if constitutional rules that prohibit the extradition of nationals apply.