In a ruling delivered by the Supreme Court of Sweden (Högsta domstolen) in Case B 763-23, Socialist Republic of Vietnam v VTN, at the end of 2023 between Christmas and New Years, it declared that Sweden cannot extradite a person, a national of Vietnam, from Sweden to Vietnam, on the basis that doing so would conflict with 1) national law, and 2) European human rights law, namely, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Vietnam was seeking the extradition of the Vietnamese national on charges related to suspected offences dating back to 2002 and 2005.
First, according to the Supreme Court, there are set prerequisite standards for extraditions to occur. They include the fact that the alleged offences are punishable in both the state requesting extradition, as well as in Sweden (‘double criminality’). For one of the alleged offences, the Supreme Court found that that no double criminality existed, as the alleged offence had no corresponding basis in Swedish law.
Second, the Supreme Court stated that the Vietnamese application for the extradition of the person could not take place because the other alleged offence, which did have a corresponding basis in Swedish law, could not be verify the, to a sufficient degree, whether the request for extradition was actually based on an arrest warrant.
Thirdly, mostly strikingly however, the Supreme Court said there was a genuine risk that if the person would be extradited to the requesting state, that they would be conferred a death sentence, and therefore, granting the extradition request breached the ECHR. The ‘assurance’ that was given to Sweden that any imposed death sentence would be commuted (if the person sought clemency) was seen as insignificant, given an assurance by the President of Vietnam cannot be guaranteed to be complied with.
The ruling of the Supreme Court of Sweden (Högsta domstolen) in Case B 763-23, Socialist Republic of Vietnam v VTN, can be read here.