This is the first time that the government has prepared a bill categorizing who can be extradited and who cannot. However, the bill will come into effect only after parliament approves it. [break]
“We have prepared an entirely new extradition bill to legally tackle extradition issues,” said Madhav Paudel, Secretary at the Ministry of Law and Justice.
According to the bill, foreign nationals who face the death sentence in a foreign country or are charged with crimes which may result in the death penalty cannot be handed over to the country in question.
“Nepal doesn´t have any provision of capital punishment. So it is logical to prevent the government from extraditing people facing such a punishment,” said Paudel.
The bill also does not allow the government to extradite Nepali citizens to another country or extradite a foreign national who is being tried in Nepal or the verdict in whose case has already been given by a court.
The new bill stipulates that the government seek the approval of a court before extraditing any foreign national. The accused will have to be extradited within 30 days from the date of the court´s approval.
Besides, those charged under military law in a foreign country or who are charged with crimes that result in less-than-a-year imprisonment cannot be extradited.
The bill has listed certain criminal charges for which foreign nationals can be extradited.
Those charged with corruption, murder, financial crimes, rape, illegal possession of weapons, ethnic cleansing, kidnapping, human trafficking, drug smuggling, physical assault, production and transaction of arms and explosives, money-laundering or extra-judicial killing will be extradited unless they face the death penalty in the country where they are to be extradited.
According to the bill, if extradition is sought for the same person by two or more countries, the accused will be extradited to the country that asked first.
If a district court does not find any basis for extradition, the accused will be immediately released from detention, the bill states.
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