Expulsion with entry ban

Case no. 13/2023
Judgment delivered on 18 August 2023

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T

The District Court and the High Court had found T, a Polish citizen, guilty of threatening a case officer at a job centre in August 2014. The District Court sentenced T to imprisonment for 20 days and expulsion from Denmark with a four-year entry ban. The High Court extended the entry ban to six years.

The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the conditions for expulsion were fulfilled.

T had worked and stayed in Denmark in the period 2008-2014, until returning to Poland in September 2014. In the hearing, he explained that he started working and moved to Denmark again in May 2019. However, he only registered his address here on 6 August 2020. Accordingly, the duration of his stay did not exceed five years when the District Court ordered his expulsion on 21 March 2022.

As T is an EU citizen, he could only be expelled if this was in accordance with the principles applicable under the EU rules on restrictions of the right to free movement.

Based on an overall assessment, the Supreme Court agreed that the threats he had been convicted for making could not be regarded as spontaneous or arbitrary crime. The Supreme Court also confirmed that, in the circumstances, T’s conduct constituted a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat affecting the fundamental interests of society, and that expulsion was in the interest of public order and security, cf. Article 27(2) of the EU Residence Directive.

The Supreme Court further agreed that expulsion with a six-year entry ban was not in contravention of the proportionality principle. Accordingly, the High Court’s judgment was upheld.