Facts
On 30 April 1987, P., an American national born in 1932, was convicted in absentia by the Court of Appeal of Florence to 20 years' imprisonment and a fine for money laundering from drug trafficking. On 25 August 1987, a warrant for his arrest was issued. On 20 March 1991, P. was arrested in Lausanne and placed in extradition detention. On 14 October 1991, the Federal Tribunal partially upheld P.'s appeal against the extradition decision, making extradition conditional on Italy guaranteeing P. the possibility to request a review of the in absentia judgment. As Italy was unable to fulfill this condition, the Federal Office terminated the detention on 4 November 1991.
On 10 January 1992, P. requested compensation from the Federal Office for unjustified detention under Art. 15 IMAC. The Federal Office rejected this request on 10 April 1992. P. then filed a complaint with the Criminal Chamber of the Federal Tribunal.
Considerations
The Criminal Chamber considers that when extradition is granted subject to a condition and the requesting State does not fulfill this condition within a reasonable time, this is equivalent to a refusal of extradition. The extradition detention then proves to be unjustified, and compensation must be granted pursuant to Arts. 122(1) FCJA and 99(1) ACLA, applicable by analogy under Art. 15(1) IMAC.
The Chamber notes that compensation may be…