Clarification of Answer by
hagan-ga
on
13 Jun 2006 10:30 PDT
Hello again, Catfish. I'm glad I was able to be of help; it was
amazingly difficult to find even this one source. The link originally
provided in the Answer is to the UN Report, but in clicking on it
again, it seems to be hosed. Try this one:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/94d60b6493e4c6b5c12570d90037eda8/%24FILE/G0544595.DOC
Here is the relevant language:
"138. The State of Qatar has signed several bilateral agreements and
memorandums of understanding with other States on such matters as
judicial cooperation and security cooperation, including mechanisms
designed to ensure full cooperation during the investigation and trial
of many different kinds of offences, including those referred to in
the Protocol. Such agreements cover the sharing of information and
evidence, requests for judicial assistance in certain proceedings, and
the enforcement of judgements. Some agreements deal with the subject
of extradition, a topic which, as mentioned above, is also regulated
by the Code of Criminal Procedures.
139. Many such agreements have been concluded with, respectively, the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Tunisia, Iran, Turkey and France."
With respect to the kind of offenses for which extradition is
available, the State of Qatar does not follow the practice of
"listing" extraditable offenses. According to Wikipedia, there are
two types of extradition treaties -- "list" treaties and "dual
criminality" treaties.
"There are two types of extradition treaties: list and dual
criminality treaties. The most common and traditional is the list
treaty, which contains a list of crimes for which a suspect will be
extradited. Dual criminality treaties, used since the 1980s, generally
allow for extradition of a criminal suspect if the punishment is more
than one year imprisonment in both countries. Occasionally the amount
of the time of the sentence agreed upon between the two countries is
varied. Under both types of treaties, if the conduct is not a crime in
either country then it will not be an extraditable offense.
Qatar's extradition arrangements are "dual criminality," not "list" treaties.
"69. The State of Qatar does not make it a practice, in the bilateral
extradition treaties which it concludes, to impose restrictions, such
as drawing up a list of extraditable offences which is then annexed to
the treaty, since this practice can help some criminals evade
punishment, if the offence which they have committed is not mentioned
in the list. This is a constant problem, owing to the many forms
which offences can take. Qatar?s policy, rather, is to precisely
define the gravity of an offence or the minimum penalty therefor and
to base the conventions which it signs on the minimum penalty
prescribed for extraditable offences, subject to the proviso that the
offence in question must be punishable under the laws of both States
parties."
From Qatar's 2000 Report to the UN Committee Against Torture,
available on the Web at
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/d28ee6123b5c9f3bc12570ae005e98e4/$FILE/G0544234.doc
That Report also clarifies the kind of treaties that Qatar has entered
into with the listed states. Only one -- the treaty with Saudi Arabia
-- is expressly designated as an "extradition" treaty. The remaining
agreements are various "security cooperation" and "judicial
cooperation" treaties. (See Paragraph 75 of the Report.) However,
even without expressly designating an agreement as an "extradition
treaty," such an agreement can form the basis for extradition.
I hope this clarifies matters.
