Introduction
Extradition is a process of migration of an individual from one state to another state, at the request of the legal authority of the requesting state. The person who is extradited is either convicted or accused of committing a crime. The extradition is not a punishment, but merely a process that can lead to punishment. The base of extradition is treaties between the two countries.
Extradition Treaty: Explained
It means an agreement signed between the two countries that will extradite individuals who have committed extradition offences. This treaty also provides for the refusal in certain circumstances; where the offences are of a political character, or where the requesting state prescribes the punishment of the death penalty.
Hong-Kong China Extradition Laws Explained
Recent protests in Hong-Kong in 2019, in which hundreds of thousands of people protested against the extradition laws. This bill would allow the detain and transfer of people from Hong-Kong to other countries with which it has no formal treaties. This bill has led to one million people protesting on the streets of Hong-Kong. Critics were of the view that this extradition bill would allow any citizen to be picked from Hong-Kong and landed in china for trial in front of the judges of china who are considered to be puppets in the hands of the communist party of china. The critics claim that this new law would not just apply to the criminals but also to the political activists, which would further lead to a threat to democracy. The people’s republic of china, bypassing this law would slowly and steadily take away the democracy and sovereignty of Hong-Kong.
Extraditing fugitives to India
India has made very unsuccessful attempts in bringing many offenders, namely Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, David Headley, and Warren Anderson. It has become very important to understand the problems faced by the authority to bring back these offenders. Presently, India has extradition treaties with 43 counties and extradition arrangements with 10 countries. The difference between a treaty and an arrangement. In the former, the country is bound by the treaty; and is therefore under an obligation to work according to the articles of the treaty; while the latter denotes that the local laws of that particular jurisdiction determine the fugitive offender’s detention.
India has very few extradition treaties with countries as compared with the US and UK, as they have over 100 extradition treaties with other countries. Russia has 64 and Canada has treaties with 49 Countries. India does not have an extradition treaty with its neighboring countries, namely, China, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Due to the absence of a defined treaty mechanism, the Indian authority finds it extremely difficult to arrest the criminals who flee to India’s Border States.
Conclusion
Despite various treaties signed between the countries, the process of extraditing fugitives has become very lengthy. And, the process heavily depends on the domestic laws and politics of the requested state. With the advent of globalization, it has become important to consider challenges which the authorities have to face in bringing back the extradition fugitives.
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