Senate ratified Inter-American Convention on Serving Criminal Sentences Abroad
"The Convention was signed by the Organization of American States in 1993. Its signatories are 19 countries including 16 American ones, for example, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the U.S.A. etc. and three non-American states - Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic and India. The Convention is open for accession and if we ratify it today, we will be the first Central Asian country to join it. The convention allows extraditing and transiting not only our compatriots sentenced for imprisonment, but also minors and persons found insane for their compulsory treatment in Kazakhstan," First Deputy Prosecutor General Iogan Merkel said addressing the senators.
Merkel outlined several conditions for transfer: the sentence must be final; the sentenced person or his/her representative in law must consent to the transfer; the act for which the person has been sentenced must also constitute a crime in the receiving state; the sentenced person must be a national of the receiving state; the sentence to be served must not be the death penalty; at least six months of the sentence must remain to be served at the time the request is made; the administration of the sentence must not be contrary to domestic law in the receiving state. "The Convention is a legal instrument for transfer of Kazakhstani students - Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev from the U.S. to Kazakhstan," he added. The young men were jailed by the U.S. court for obstructing the investigation and police in the Boston marathon terror attack.
