Decision of the Court of Cassation, VI Criminal Section, No. 5089 of 23 January 2014

With this judgment the Court of Cassation rejected a recourse against the decision of the Court of Appeal of Rome on the extradition of a Macedonian national, who had been convicted in Macedonia for the offense of manufacturing, possessing and illegal trading arms and ammunitions. For the Court, Article 3 of the ECHR was not applicable to the case, because the requested person was not at risk to be subjected in Macedonia to a inhuman or degrading treatment, or other violations of his fundamental rights. Secondly, the extradition was not in breach of Articles 10.4 and 26.2 of the Italian Constitution, as it was not possible to qualify the facts in question as a “political offense”. Thirdly, the decision of the Court of appeal had not infringed the principle of “dual incrimination” as resulting from the European Convention on Extradition, because differences that may exist in the legislation of the requesting state and the requested state as regards the gravity of an offense or the sanctions are irrelevant, provided that the same conduct is regarded as a criminal offense in the legislation of the two states.