S'pore extradition pact nearly inked

S'pore extradition pact nearly inked

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After six rounds of negotiations, the government is making
progress on an extradition treaty with neighboring Singapore and
expects to complete the deal soon, a minister says.

Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin said on
Wednesday 13 of 19 articles in the treaty had been finalized,
with the remaining articles to be discussed during the next round
of negotiations in Singapore.

The last round of talks was held on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 in
Jakarta. Indonesian was represented at the talks by officials
from Hamid's office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the
Attorney General's Office.

Among the issues waiting to be resolved are Article 2 on
extraditable offenses, Article 3 on territorial applications and
Article 4 on exceptions to extradition.

Article 5 on extradition requests and supporting documents,
and Article 13 on evidence have been finalized, Hamid said during
a hearing with House of Representatives Commission III on legal
and security affairs.

Hamid said the finalization of the extradition treaty was
expected to be accompanied by a cooperation agreement between the
two countries on defense affairs.

Talks on the extradition treaty began after a meeting between
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Singaporean Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Long in November 2004.

Singapore currently has extradition treaties only with the
United States and Great Britain. Indonesia began pushing for an
extradition agreement with the island-state after several
corruption suspects fled to Singapore to avoid prosecution at
home.

The public has become increasingly impatient for the
government to bring back from Singapore and try bankers who
abused state funds in the wake of the late 1990s financial
crisis.

Without an extradition agreement, these suspects cannot be
sent back to Indonesia, even at the request of Jakarta.