Securing attendance of person as witness or to assist in investigations
9.—(1) This article applies where the Secretary of State receives from the Mechanism an order for the attendance before the Mechanism of a person in the United Kingdom who—
(a)has been served with a summons or other process under article 24 requiring that person to appear before the Mechanism for the purposes of giving evidence or assisting an investigation or for both; and
(b)has failed to comply with the process,
and the order is accompanied by a request for assistance in enforcing it.
(2) The Secretary of State must transmit the order to an appropriate judicial officer, who must issue a warrant for the arrest of the person named or described in the order.
(3) If it appears to the Secretary of State that the order should be considered by an appropriate judicial officer in Scotland, he must transmit the order and the documents accompanying it to the Lord Advocate who must transmit them to an appropriate judicial officer who must issue a warrant for the arrest of the person named or described in the order.
(4) A person arrested in pursuance of a warrant issued under paragraph (2) or (3) (“P”) must be brought before a competent court as soon as practicable.
(5) If the competent court is satisfied that—
(a)P is the person named or described in the warrant and in the order of the Mechanism;
(b)P has been served with a summons or other process under article 24 requiring P to appear before the Mechanism; and
(c)P has failed to comply with the process,
the court must order P to be delivered up, in accordance with arrangements made by the Secretary of State with the Registrar, into the custody of the Mechanism and must remand P until the order has been executed.
(6) If the competent court does not make an order under paragraph (5) and P is not remanded, the court must order P’s discharge.