China's top legislature on Saturday approved a treaty on
judicial cooperation with Portugal on the transfer of convicted
persons.
The treaty allows convicted persons in both nations to serve
prison sentences in home countries "closer to their families".
According to the treaty, signed in Beijing in January, the
transfer of convicted persons would only be applied to convicted
Chinese or Portuguese who should have at least one year remaining
in their sentence at the time of submission of transfer
request.
Minister of Justice Wu Aiying said while briefing lawmakers at
the just-concluded legislative session, "Since the concept of
offender transfer serves a very important humanitarian purpose, the
legal rights of convicted prisoners should be guaranteed."
The transfer of convicted persons would facilitate prisoners to
get assistance from their family members and eliminate cultural and
communication obstacles for them when serving their terms in a
foreign country, Wu said.
The weeklong 31st session of the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress (NPC), ended on Saturday.
The 19-article treaty also stipulated that the transfer of
convicted persons should only be conducted after it was acceded by
sentenced prisoners themselves.
Statistics showed that 70 Chinese were imprisoned in Portugal,
while a lone Portuguese was serving time in China as of June.
Since 2002, China have signed treaties on transfer of convicted
persons with Ukraine, Russia and Spain.
(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)
