Arrested On Holiday In Europe? Giambrone & Partners Can Help You

• Published date: 13 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Criminal Law, Food and Drugs Law, White Collar Crime, Anti-Corruption & Fraud
• Law Firm: Giambrone & Partners
• Author: Mr Vincenzo Senatore

After all the restrictions and difficulties faced during the enforced lockdown due to COVID 19 many people are looking forward to a holiday in Europe. Most people enjoy their dream holiday without incident, however, for some people, all too often the temptation to over indulge leads to the dream turning into a nightmare of arrest in a foreign country.

There are few things more disturbing than being arrested abroad, facing a language barrier, isolation, often with little or no knowledge of your rights. It is not unheard of for a person to be arrested without understanding what offence they are alleged to have committed. Giambrone & Partners' highly experienced criminal defence lawyers stress the critical importance of obtaining first-rate legal advice from English speaking lawyers at the earliest possible moment. There is an obligation to provide legal assistance in the language of the person arrested but there is no guarantee that the duty lawyer will have a good enough command of English to assist you or explain the potential consequences to you. Individuals are often frightened into signing documents drafted in a language that they cannot read without the benefit of any legal advice.

Drunkenness and drug use account for a large number of the arrests in European countries, also violent assault features highly on the list of reasons for arrest. Whilst most people recognise that any type of violence has every chance of attracting serious consequences, the considerable variation in how drug offences are regarded across Europe is less well known. Just because your home country is more lenient it should not be assumed that what you do at home is permitted everywhere. Several countries in Europe have more than one police force that has competence in different criminal disciplines. They wear different uniforms but all have the weight of the law behind them. It is easy to envisage that individuals who are unaware of this, in heated moments, disregard the requests and demands from police officers that they do not recognise as being part of a police force, resulting in highly unwelcome consequences.

Some of the variations are as follows:

Italy, possession of drugs, regardless of the quantity, is a serious offence. Possession of drugs with intent to supply attracts a prison sentence of six to 20 years together with the potential for a fine of anywhere between '26,000 to '260,000. There are different police forces working in different disciplines.

• The Carabinieri...