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Prison sentences for criminals within the European Union?
I am rather curious about how the justice system of the European Union works, and I was wondering: if a citizen of one EU state (for example, the Czech Republic) commits a crime in another member state (example, Spain) and is convicted by a court in that country, would he be automatically repatriated to the Czech Republic to serve out the prison sentence assigned to him by the court, or would he serve his sentence in a Spanish prison?
Would the same regulations apply to the citizens of Schengen Area countries that are not part of the European Union, such as Switzerland, and Norway? Would a Swiss citizen be repatriated, or would be serve his sentence in Spain? Would a Czech citizen in Norway be sent back to the Czech Republic? In all these cases, the criminal is convicted, and sentenced to jail time in the country in which the offense was committed.
This may or may not seem like a rudimentary question, but I do not know where to begin to look for useful information. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
1 Answer
- MoravianEagleLv 71 decade agoFavorite Answer
It will depend on case by case bases. Czech citizen committing crime in Czech Republic and runaway to EU/Schengen country, could be traced and requested to be sent back to face Czech justice. One big and well known case is Barbara Skrlova that participated in hideous crime against children and later run and hid in Norway, where she was eventually discovered and sent back to CZ. She currently serves a prison sentence. Other criminals from CZ that were caught in CH are also waiting for extradition; therefore, high profile criminals know emigrate either to former USSR territory, USA, central America, and South Africa. Czech nationals that committed crime after 1989 and went to hiding into other European countries, even to Slovakia, were sought after 2004, and were surprised to face court system in Czech republic.
If present day Czech citizen commits crime in EU, they often will serve the sentence in the EU country, but often they may request to transfer and finish their sentence in Czech Republic. The oldest female murderer, Miroslava Kukačková, age 80, served life sentence for murder in Germany, but was transferred to Czech Republic where she had died in prison. Also for countries like Germany or Sweden they figured out that it is easier and cheaper to sent them back to CZ than to carry the burden there.
However, I believe it is not automatic for EU citizen to serve a sentence in the country.. For example Czech Republic often sent EU citizens from wealthier states to their host countries, but often keeps others, especially from new members in their prison system.
