Countries with which Kazakhstan can exchange convicted persons
Over the past three years, Kazakhstan has returned 116 compatriots convicted abroad to continue serving their sentences, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
These citizens are now serving their sentences in their homeland, thanks to a number of multilateral and bilateral agreements between Kazakhstan and other countries on the transfer of convicted persons.
Multilateral agreements
As for multilateral agreements, Kazakhstan is a party to:
● Convention on the Transfer of Persons Sentenced to Imprisonment for Further Serving the Sentence of 06.03.1998 (8 parties in total: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan).
● Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad of 09.06.1993 (22 parties in total: Kazakhstan, Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, Canada, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador, USA, Suriname, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic, India, Slovakia).
Bilateral agreements
Along with the above-mentioned Conventions, Kazakhstan has 26 bilateral agreements on the transfer of convicted persons with countries such as:
● Azerbaijan
● Ukraine
● Turkmenistan
● China
● Spain
● Turkey
● Italy
● Hungary
● Romania
● India
● Iran
● Serbia
● Saudi Arabia
● Lithuania
● Jordan
● Mongolia
● Brazil
● UAE
● Republic of Korea
● Bulgaria
● North Macedonia
● Uzbekistan
● Vietnam
● Cyprus
● Peru
● Morocco
As noted by the Prosecutor General's Office in response to an official request from Kazinform, work in this direction on concluding agreements is ongoing.
The department also explained that the extradition of persons and the transfer of convicted persons are different procedures.
“Extradition is the forced return of a person who committed a crime in one country and was hiding in another, to be brought to criminal responsibility or to execute the sentence imposed on him for this crime. The transfer of a convicted person is the return to the homeland of a person who committed a crime in a foreign country, to further serve the sentence imposed by the verdict of this court on the basis of his will. Considering this, the procedure for the transfer of each convicted person is individual and depends on various circumstances concerning the characteristics of the person and his case,” the Prosecutor General's Office explained.
