Cabinet okays pact with Estonia on sentenced persons

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the signing and ratification of an agreement between India and Estonia on the mutual transfer of persons convicted for various crimes.

The agreement will facilitate repatriation of Indian prisoners imprisoned in Estonia or vice versa to be jailed at facilities near to their family homes for the remaining part of their incarceration and also facilitate their social rehabilitation, an official statement said.

Prior to 2004, there was no legislation in India under which foreign prisoners could be transferred to the countries of their origin to serve the remaining part of their sentence, nor was there any provision for the transfer of prisoners of Indian origin convicted by a foreign court to serve their sentence in India.

India has so far signed bilateral agreements on transfer of convicts with the United Kingdom, Mauritius, Bulgaria, France, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia.

So far, 65 prisoners have been repatriated under the agreement, of which 55 were Indians, the statement said.

--IANS

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