ASEAN welcomes proposal for regional extradition treaty: KL

ASEAN welcomes proposal for regional extradition treaty: KL

Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur

Southeast Asian nations have welcomed a Malaysian proposal for a regional extradition treaty that will help address terrorism and transnational crime, a minister said on Monday.

Malaysia floated the proposal at a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) law ministers in Hanoi last week, said Radzi Sheikh Ahmad who holds the legal affairs portfolio in the prime minister's department.

"Member countries agreed to establish a working group to examine Malaysia's proposal for a model ASEAN extradition treaty," Radzi told a forum on child abuse and exploitation.

"We believe initiatives such as these will facilitate our efforts to combat cross-border or transnational crimes, including trafficking of children, more effectively," he said.

Radzi later told reporters that the treaty was "welcomed by all the 10 countries" of the grouping, and could be adopted by next year after details were thought out.

The multilateral treaty, which will include the extradition of terrorists, is to deal "only in criminal matters, nothing political", he said, adding that the sovereignty of member countries would still be respected.

"We have to respect the domestic laws of respective countries," he said.

ASEAN has been mulling a multilateral extradition treaty since 1976, but has so far made little progress, although several member nations have bilateral extradition treaties with each other.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.