33The Court has already had occasion to state that those standards and procedures would be undermined if, after establishing that a third-country national is staying illegally, the Member State were to preface the implementation of the return decision, or even the adoption of that decision, with a criminal prosecution which could lead to a term of imprisonment during the course of the return procedure. Such a step would risk delaying the removal (see El Dridi, paragraph 59, and Achughbabian, paragraphs 37 to 39 and 45).
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