Kazakhstan requested the extradition of the applicant, who had applied for international protection in Spain. In a decision of 23 March 2021, the National High Court agreed to extradite the applicant to his country of origin. The applicant brought an extraordinary appeal against this decision, arguing his application for international protection should have suspensory effect in the extradition procedure. On 17 May 2022, the Council of Ministers rejected this extraordinary appeal. The applicant therefore contested the decision of the council before the Supreme Court, who also rejected his claims.

The applicant based his claims on the fact that, following his application for international protection, Interpol had deleted the data concerning him from its files. Interpol considered that his new status of asylum seeker protected him against refoulement to his country of origin and was therefore incompatible with the intention of the file i.e. to locate and detain him for the purpose of extradition.

The court rejected the applicant’s argument, noting that Interpol’s conduct cannot be regarded as essential evidence in the appeal since its involvement in the extradition procedure is not necessary but optional. However, the court still considered the question of the suspensory effect of the application for international protection in the extradition procedure. It recalled that the National High Court had already addressed the issue and set it aside citing national law which provided that such an application only had a suspensory effect on the execution of the extradition decision, but not on the extradition procedure itself. The Supreme Court then added that, in line with CJEU doctrine in the Gnandi case, the appeal brought against the negative decision the applicant had received with regard to his application for international protection will also have suspensory effect vis-à-vis the execution of his extradition.