ROME: Italy on Friday signed with Libya and Algeria agreements on judicial cooperation and extradition of convicted criminals.
The agreements were signed on the sidelines of an international conference in the Italian city of Palermo to mark the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
They enhance judicial cooperation, and provide that select prisoners can serve their sentence in their country of origin following a case-by-case evaluation procedure.
Before entering into force, the agreements must be approved by the Italian parliament through a specific ratification bill.
“The treaties we signed will be essential to boost fruitful judicial cooperation between our countries, and will be a useful tool in order to have faster extradition processes for criminals arrested in our countries,” Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told reporters after signing the agreements.
“Italy is ready to increase its network of liaison magistrates in several countries in North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
“The experience we have so far has been very satisfactory, both for us and for the countries where our magistrates have been performing their duties alongside their local colleagues. That is a great way to learn best practices from both sides.”
