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A chef has been forced to return to his native Poland to serve two years for breaching a probation order linked with crimes committed as a teenager after a nine-month battle in Jersey's courts.
Now 32 years old, Dariusz Burdynski was extradited to Poland last month after a lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, fight for his right to stay in Jersey – his home of nearly a decade.
After stealing two cars when he was a teenager, Mr Burdynski was given a two-year suspended sentence and a four-year probation order preventing him from leaving the country. However, after being released from prison for other offences, he did not comply with this order and moved to Jersey.
Years later, the Polish Minister of Justice made a request to Jersey's Attorney General, Robert MacRae, in 2015. He demanded that Mr Burdynksi return to the Republic to face a two-year prison sentence for the car thefts, which had been suspended but was activated by his probation breach.
Pictured: The Attorney General received the extradition request from Poland in 2015.
Mr Burdynski, who had plans to get married in the island later this year, was subsequently arrested in Jersey during an early-hours raid of his home last summer.
Almost nine months later, Mr Burdynski was sent back to Poland on 17 April after two Jersey courts found there were no legal grounds for him to stay in the island where he has been settled for nearly a decade.
The chef’s case has been the subject of extended and complicated hearings in the Magistrate’s Court before his lawyer, Advocate Jeremy Garood, mounted a challenge to the Assistant Magistrate’s ruling higher up the chain in the Royal Court.
The appeal saw Advocate Matthew Maletroit appear on behalf of the Republic of Poland.
Pictured: Mr Burdynski's appeals were defeated in both the Magistrate's and Royal Court.
It was during this hearing that Advocate Garood made a number of arguments which he claimed called into question the validity of the request.
It was then the turn of Royal Court Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Blampied and Ramsden, to consider Mr Burdynski’s appeal against extradition. Although he said the Court had “sympathy” for the 32-year-old, it ultimately agreed that Jersey was legally bound to comply with Poland’s request.
Mr Burdynski’s extradition is just one in a recent spate of extradition requests from Poland, as the ruling ‘Law and Justice’ continue to crack down on previous offenders who have left the country.
Pictured: Mr Burdynski was extradited back to Poland last month.
Growing concerns about the Republic’s judicial system have resulted in one extradition case in Ireland – that of Artur Celmer – going as high as the Supreme Court for fear that he wouldn’t get a fair trial if returned to Poland in connection with alleged drug trafficking offences.
Mr Burdynski's case follows that of Mateusz Pabian, who was extradited in October of last year, leaving behind his three young sons and wife of five years, Jessica.
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