Estonian government forwards prisoner transfer agreement with India to Riigikogu
The Estonian government decided on Thursday to forward an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons, according to which Indian and Estonian citizens sentenced to prison in the other country can serve their sentence in their home country, to the Riigikogu for ratification.
The agreement can be applied to convicted persons on the condition that the convicted person and both countries agree to this, spokespeople for the government, adding that the sentence of the person to whom the prisoner transfer agreement is applied must be final.
The agreement may not be applied to persons sentenced to death or convicted of a war crime.
Following the transfer, the convictede person must continue serving his or her sentence in their home country. Both countries reserve the right to pardon the prisoner or reduce their punishment pursuant to the respective country's Constitution.
The agreement will take effect on the first day of the month following the day of notification of the completion of domestic procedures by the party to the agreement that is the last to do so.
The accord is expected to help bring home the Estonian ship guards sentenced to prison by a South Indian court, but it cannot be applied in their case until their sentences have entered into force, which means that the ship guards would have to drop their appeal.
Estonian ship guards still fighting case in India
On Oct. 18 2013, police in Tamil Nadu arrested 35 crew and security personnel on board the anti-piracy vessel Seaman Guard Ohio, including 14 Estonian citizens as well as citizens of the UK, Ukraine and India. They were charged in December of the same year with illegal refueling, illegal handling of firearms and illegal entry into territorial waters, and released on bail in April 2014.
After being handled in various court instances, the case was returned by India's Supreme Court to the Tuticorin Magistrate Court which on Jan. 11, 2016 sentenced the men to five years' imprisonment for entering India with weapons. At the end of January, the ship guards decided to appeal the verdict and applied for bail. The bail application was rejected on Feb. 29, but the court decided to continue appeal hearings, which were subsequently postponed multiple times.
BNS reported in early December that a hearing in the ship guards' appeal had taken place in the Madurai branch of the Tamil Nadu High Court. Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Belovas had told BNS at the time that, according to the lawyers, the presentation of arguments had been completed, after which they were left to wait for the court's decision on the matter.
Editor: Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS