Taiwan and Panama yesterday signed a bilateral treaty for the extradition of prisoners, the first such agreement between Taiwan and another country.
Under the agreement, the two governments will recognize verdicts in criminal cases handed down by each other’s judicial systems to their respective nationals and permit prisoners to serve their remaining sentences in their home country so they can be close to their families.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) and Panamanian Vice President and Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Varela signed the treaty at the Taipei Guest House.
PHOTO: CNA
The treaty will ensure the protection of prisoners’ human rights and increase the effectiveness of judicial and correction prescriptions, Yang said.
Yang and Varela also signed a joint statement expressing their intent to continue to consolidate the bilateral friendship and push for further exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.
The statement set out the directions the two countries will continue to work at and the objectives they hope to achieve in the fields of tourism, the economy and agricultural cooperation, Varela said.
He said cooperation in these fields played an important role in the past, present and future and are aimed at public welfare, adding that they are the key factors in the deepening of their relationship.
Varela’s seven-member delegation arrived in Taipei on Sunday for a four-day visit.
The treaty was triggered by an incident in which Duanmu Wei-kai (端木惟鍇), a Taiwanese captain of the Panama-registered bulk carrier HV Well Pescadores, was sentenced by a Panamanian court after two stowaways drowned when the were sent off the ship on two wooden rafts.
A total of five Dominican stowaways were found hiding in the ship when it was sailing from the Dominican Republic to Houston, Texas, in March 2003. The surviving stowaways testified that they were thrown off the ship. Duanmu, however, claimed he was innocent.
The Panamanian court favored the stowaways’ testimony, and convicted Duanmu of murder and sentenced him to 19-and-a-half years in prison in September 2005.
Since then, the Taiwanese government has worked to negotiate with Panama on the treaty as there were concerns about the captain’s health.
Duanmu was repatriated back to Taiwan by Panama in July 2008.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government is in the process of negotiating a similar treaty with Germany and hopes to sign an agreement with Thailand on the same matter.
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