OBSTACLES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EXTRADITION PROCEDURE

Abstract

Despite the fact that numerous international and domestic instruments (striving to
fully) regulate the extradition procedure of accused or convicted individuals, as well as the numerous bilateral agreements signed between the Republic of North Macedonia and other
countries, the results in practice are far from satisfactory. The paper, which is consisted of
three parts, primarily focuses on the legal framework, i.e. the international and domestic
instruments related to international cooperation in criminal matters, or more precisely the
extradition procedure, whereafter it continues with a review of several court cases in which
the Republic of North Macedonia requests extradition of accused or convicted individuals
in criminal proceedings, with a detailed description of all actions taken and/or failed to be
taken by all actors in the process, the duration of the process, the legal mechanisms (mis)used
for rejecting the requests and the consequences of not implementing the procedures for the
judicial system and the state as a whole. Finally, after identifying (majority of) obstacles in
the implementation of the extradition procedure, there are conclusions and recommendations
regarding further necessary steps for efficient implementation of the extradition procedure as
one of crucial procedures in a criminal case.