BCM v Judecatoria Sector 4 Bucharest (Romania) [2025] 11 WLUK 361

Ceylon Giles prepared the successful High Court appeal in BCM v Romania [2025] 11 WLUK 361, a rare and exceptional Article 8 case concerning the extradition of a Romanian national to serve a four-year sentence for fraud. The appeal was re-opened on the basis of compelling fresh medical and social services evidence obtained following the severe deterioration in the mental health of the Requested Person’s partner, for whom he was the primary carer.

Ceylon assisted in preparing the fresh evidence demonstrating a fundamental change in the family circumstances, including psychiatric evidence of major depressive disorder with psychotic features, suicidal ideation, and the risk of the couple’s child entering long-term foster care if extradition proceeded. The High Court accepted that extradition would cause long-term and potentially permanent harm to both the partner and the child, placing the matter firmly within the “rare and exceptional” category where extradition would constitute a disproportionate interference with Article 8 rights. Despite the seriousness of the original offending and the fugitive element, the Court held that the public interest in extradition did not outweigh the extreme harm that removal would cause.

The appeal was allowed and extradition was refused. This judgment stands as one of the few successful Article 8 re-opened appeals in recent years, underlining the exceptionally high threshold required to resist extradition on family-life grounds.