extradition
Formal transfer of a charged or convicted person to or from Denmark under law
Extradition is a public-law process in which a person who is charged, indicted or convicted of a criminal offence is surrendered to or from Denmark to another country. The purpose is either to carry out criminal proceedings against a person who has not yet been convicted, or to enforce a sentence that the person has already received in another country. Extradition can only take place under the rules of the Danish Extradition Act (udleveringsloven) and presupposes that certain conditions are met. It is therefore not an ordinary handover, but a formal process between states, governed by both national legislation and international agreements.
Denmark can both extradite persons to other countries and receive persons from other countries. Extradition differs from other forms of international legal assistance in that it concerns the physical surrender of the person themselves. The process typically involves both administrative and judicial assessments, including a review of whether the conditions in the Extradition Act are satisfied. There are rules on when extradition must or may be refused, for example if the person is a Danish citizen, or if there is a risk of prosecution that conflicts with fundamental legal principles.
Within the EU, the extradition rules are supplemented by the European Arrest Warrant scheme, which has considerably simplified the procedures for surrender between EU member states. Here the term 'surrender' is used instead of 'extradition', but the principle is the same.
