Minister of Justice Tsai Ching-hsiang (蔡清祥) yesterday announced the completion of the process to extradite a Polish national back to his country, following the recent signing of a judicial cooperation agreement with Poland, while another similar pact with Slovakia was finalized on Tuesday.
Tsai and other Ministry of Justice officials said that the extradition was another successful case of judicial cooperation with a European country.
According to information from the ministry, Taiwan has made breakthroughs regarding new bilateral agreements on judicial matters, and thus far, has repatriated seven German nationals, one citizen from the UK and one from Denmark, as well as the Polish national, to serve their remaining prison terms in their home countries.
Photo copied by Wu Cheng-feng, Taipei Times
Ministry officials said it was not easy to complete the process for the latest repatriation, as the Taiwan-Poland Criminal Justice Cooperation Agreement required ratification from both sides, and only received the final approval from Polish President Andrzej Duda in January.
Prosecutor Lin Ming-yi (林明誼), who handled the case, told reporters that the Polish national was found guilty in a criminal case and was serving his term in a local prison.
“He did not have much to complain about regarding the prison conditions, as he was placed in a renovated facility specifically for foreign nationals,” Lin said, “The problem was that he does not speak much English, and was unable to communicate with other people. So he kept on expressing his wish to serve the remainder of his prison term back home in Poland.”
Lin said the judiciary made detailed arrangements to facilitate the extradition.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and other ministry officials could not visit Poland, so they had to communicate via e-mail, Lin said.
The process and discussions helped the Polish government better understand that Taiwan has a good justice system, that both sides can trust each other and can deliver on the promises made, he said.
“It was not easy to make arrangements, because Taiwan in May had a surge in local [COVID-19] infections. It was our job to ensure that all prevention measures and safety guidelines had been followed,” Lin said.
Poland’s judiciary sent three police officers to Taiwan, who had to present negative COVID-19 tests from within three days of boarding their flight, he said.
The ministry fast-tracked their clearance at the airport, provided designated vehicles and drivers, and accommodated them at a quarantine hotel, Lin said, adding that they held meetings with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and Poland’s representative office, at which disease prevention measures were strictly adhered to.
Personnel from the Investigation Bureau delivered the Polish national to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, and officially handed him over to the three Polish police officers on May 17, as they boarded a flight to Poland, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Tsai was joined by Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Slovak Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Representative Martin Podstavek to announce the signing of the Arrangement between Taiwan and Slovakia on Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters — the nation’s sixth such mutual legal assistance pact with a European country.
The agreement took four years to complete.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS