The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed a Dubrovnik County Court ruling to extradite whistleblower Jonathon Taylor to Monaco to face charges of extortion.

Croatia’s highest court said, without revealing Taylor’s identity, that it had sustained the appeal against the extradition and quashed the county court’s ruling which found that all the legal preconditions had been satisfied to extradite him to the Kingdom of Monaco.

The Supreme Court notes that the extraditee is a UK citizen who was arrested in Croatia on an international warrant issued by Monaco where Taylor is to be tried for extortion.

The Supreme Court considers that it is first necessary to establish if the United Kingdom intends to issue an arrest warrant. Even though the United Kingdom has exited the European Union, it is in a transitional phase and EU law still applies, hence legal standards need to be applied which means that the country the extraditee belongs to needs to be advised of the extradition request, the court said.

The Supreme Court added that the first instance court needs to urgently inform the United Kingdom and ask for its opinion regarding the extradition request to Monaco as a country that is not part of the EU.

If the UK does not request for its citizen to be handed over, the first instance court needs to deliver a new decision in regard to Monaco’s extradition request when it will be decided whether legal conditions exist for the extradition. If the UK is interested in having its citizen handed over, then a European Arrest Warrant has priority over Monaco’s extradition request, the Supreme Court explained.

Jonathan Taylor, a British attorney, was arrested at Dubrovnik airport in July upon arrival in Croatia for a holiday, based on an Interpol warrant. Taylor claims that this is a vendetta against him because in 2012 he revealed fraudulent deals worth millions by companies based in Monaco.