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Notification extending to Canada as from the 18th September, 1928, the Convention between His Majesty and Estonia for the Extradition of Fugitive Criminals [1928] CATSer 5 (18 September 1928)

E101264 - CTS 1928 No. 10

NOTIFICATION EXTENDING TO CANADA AS FROM THE 18TH SEPTEMBER, 1928, THE CONVENTION BETWEEN HIS MAJESTY AND ESTONIA FOR THE EXTRADITION OF FUGITIVE CRIMINALS SIGNED AT LONDON THE 18TH NOVEMBER, 1925

H M Chargé d’Affaires, at Riga, to the Estonian Minister for Foreign Affairs

BRITISH LEGATION, RIGA,

September 18, 1928

No. M.T. 45.

His Excellency Monsieur H. Rebane,
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Reval

Your Excellency,— In accordance with instructions received from the Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I have the honour, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government in Canada, to give notice to Your Excellency, for the information of the Estonian Government, of the application to the Dominion of Canada of the Extradition Treaty between His Britannic Majesty and the Estonian Republic, which was signed at London on November 18, 1925, under and in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 thereof.

2. I have the honour to request Your Excellency to be good enough to acknowledge the receipt of this notification.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to Your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.

E. H. Carr

CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ESTONIA FOR THE EXTRADITION OF FUGITIVE CRIMINALS

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas Emperor of India and the Esthonian Republic, having determined, by common consent, to conclude a convention for the extradition of criminals, have accordingly named as their plenipotentiaries:

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India:-

The Right Honourable Joseph Austen Chamberlain, M.P., His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; and

The Estonian Republic:-

Dr Oskar Kallas, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Esthonian Republic at London;

Who, after having exhibited to each other their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:-

ARTICLE 1

The High Contracting Parties engage to deliver up to each other, under certain circumstances and conditions stated in the present convention, those persons who, being accused or convicted of any of the crimes or offences enumerated in Article 2, committed within the jurisdiction of the one Party, shall be found within the territory of the other Party.

ARTICLE 2

Extradition shall be reciprocally granted for the following crimes or offences, provided that they are punishable under the law of both States by imprisonment with or without hard labour or some greater punishment:-

1. Murder (including assassination, parricide, infanticide, poisoning), or attempt or conspiracy to murder.

2. Manslaughter.

3. Administering drugs or using instruments with intent to procure the miscarriage of women.

4. Rape.

5. Carnal knowledge, or any attempt to have carnal knowledge, of a girl under 14 years of age.

6. Indecent assault.

7. Kidnapping and false imprisonment.

8. Child stealing, including abandoning, exposing or unlawfully detaining.

9. Abduction.

10. Procuration.

11. Bigamy.

12. Maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm.

13. Assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

14. Threats, by letter or otherwise, with intent to extort money or other things of value.

15. Perjury, or subornation of perjury.

16. Arson.

17. Burglary or housebreaking, robbery with violence, larceny or embezzlement.

18. Fraud by a bailee, banker, agent, factor, trustee, director, member, or public officer of any company, or fraudulent conversion.

19. Obtaining money, valuable security, or goods by false pretences; receiving any money, valuable security, or other property, knowing the same to have been stolen or feloniously obtained.

20. (a) Counterfeiting or altering money, or bringing into circulation counterfeited or altered money.

(b) Knowingly making without lawful authority any instrument, tool, or engine adapted and intended for the counterfeiting of the realm.

21. Forgery, or uttering what is forged.

22. Crimes against bankruptcy law.

23. Any malicious act done with intent to endanger the safety of any persons travelling or being upon a railway.

24. Malicious injury to property, if such offence be indictable.

25. Piracy and other crimes or offences committed at sea against persons of things which, according to the laws of the High Contracting Parties, are extradition crimes or offences.

26. Dealing in slaves in such manner as to constitute a crime or offence against the laws of both States.

The extradition is also to be granted for participation in any of the aforesaid crimes or offences provided such participation be punishable by the laws of both High Contracting Parties.

Extradition may also be granted at the discretion of the state applied to in respect of any other crime or offence for which, according to the law of both the High Contracting Parties for the time being in force, the grant can be made.

ARTICLE 3

Each Party reserves the right to refuse or grant, the surrender of its own subjects or citizens to the other Party.

ARTICLE 4

The extradition shall not take place if the person claimed has already been tried and discharged or punished, or is still under trial in the State applied to, for the crime or offence for which his extradition is demanded.

If the person claimed should be under examination or under punishment in the State applied to for any other crime or offence, his extradition shall be deferred until the conclusion of the trial and the full execution of any punishment awarded to him.

ARTICLE 5

The extradition shall not take place if, subsequently to the commission of the crime or offence or the institution of the penal prosecution or the conviction thereon, exemption from prosecution or punishment has been acquired by lapse of time, according to the laws of the State applying or applied to.

ARTICLE 6

A fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered if the crime or offence in respect of which his surrender is demanded is one of a political character, or if he proves that the requisition for his surrender has, in fact, been made with a view to try or punish him for a crime or offence of a political character.

ARTICLE 7

A person surrendered can in no case be kept in custody or be brought to trial in the State to which the surrender has been made for any other crime or offence, or on account of any other matters, than those for which the extradition shall have taken place, until he has been restored, or has had an opportunity of returning, to the State by which he has been surrendered.

This stipulation does not apply to crimes or offences committed after the extradition.

ARTICLE 8

The requisition for extradition shall be made through the diplomatic agents of the High Contracting Parties respectively.

The requisition for the extradition of an accused person must be accompanied by a warrant of arrest issued by the competent authority of the State requiring the extradition, and by such evidence as, according to the laws of the place where the accused is found, would justify his arrest if the crime or offence had been committed there.

If the requisition relates to a person already convicted, it must be accompanied by the sentence of condemnation passed against the convicted person by the competent court of the State that makes the requisition for extradition.

A sentence passed in contumaciam is not to be deemed a conviction, but a person so sentenced may be dealt with as an accused person.

ARTICLE 9

If the requisition for extradition be in accordance with the foregoing stipulations, the competent authorities of the State applied to shall proceed to the arrest of the fugitive.

ARTICLE 10

A criminal fugitive may be apprehended under a warrant issued by any police magistrate, justice of the peace, or other competent authority in either State, on such information or complaint and such evidence, or after such proceedings, as would, in the opinion of the authority issuing the warrant, justify the issue of a warrant if the crime or offence had been committed or the person convicted in that part of the dominions of the two High Contracting Parties in which the magistrate, justice of the peace, or other competent authority, exercises jurisdiction. He shall, in accordance with this article, be discharged if within the term of thirty days a requisition for extradition shall not have been made by the diplomatic agent of the State claiming his extradition in accordance with the stipulations of this treaty. The same rule shall apply to the cases of persons accused or convicted of any of the crimes or offences specified in this treaty, and committed on the high seas on board any vessel of either State which may come into a port of the other.

ARTICLE 11

The extradition shall take place only if the evidence be found sufficient, according to the laws of the State applied to, either to justify the committal of the prisoner for trial, in case the crime or offence had been committed in the territory of the same State, or to prove that the prisoner is the identical person convicted by the courts of the State which makes the requisition, and that the crime or offence of which he has been convicted is one in respect of which extradition could, at the time of such conviction, have been granted by the State applied to; and no criminal shall be surrendered until after the expiration of fifteen days from the date of his committal to prison to await the warrant for his surrender.

ARTICLE 12

In the examinations which they have to make in accordance with the foregoing stipulations, the authorities of the State applied to shall admit as valid evidence the sworn depositions or the affirmations of witnesses taken in the other State, or copies thereof, and likewise the warrants and sentences issued therein, or copies thereof, and certificates of, or judicial documents stating the fact of a conviction, provided the same are authenticated as follows:-

1. A warrant, or copy thereof, must purport to be signed by a judge, magistrate, or officer of the other State, or purport to be certified under the hand of a judge, magistrate or officer of the other State to be a true copy thereof, as the case may require.

2. Depositions or affirmations, or the copies thereof, must purport to be certified, under the hand of a judge, magistrate, or officer of the other State, to be the original depositions or affirmations, or to be true copies thereof, as the case may require.

3. A certificate of, or judicial document stating the fact of a conviction must purport to be certified by a judge, magistrate, or officer of the other State.

In every case such warrant, deposition, affirmation, copy, certificate, or judicial document must be authenticated, either by the oath of some witness, or by being sealed with the official seal of the Minister of Justice, or some other minister of the other State, or by any other mode of authentication for the time being permitted by the law of the State to which the application for extradition is made.

ARTICLE 13

If the individual claimed by one of the High Contracting Parties in pursuance of the present convention should be also claimed by one or several other Powers on account of other crimes or offences committed within their respective jurisdictions, his extradition shall be granted to the State whose claim is earliest in date, unless such claim is waived.

ARTICLE 14

If sufficient evidence for the extradition be not produced within two months from the date of the apprehension of the fugitive, or within such further time as the State applied to, or the proper tribunal thereof, shall direct, the fugitive shall be set at liberty.

ARTICLE 15

All articles seized which were in the possession of the person to be surrendered at the time of his apprehension, and any articles that may serve as a proof of the crime or offence shall be given up when the extradition takes place, in so far as this may be permitted by the law of the State granting the extradition.

ARTICLE 16

Each of the High Contracting Parties, shall defray the expenses occasioned by the arrest within its territories, the detention, and the conveyance to its frontier, of the persons whom it may have consented to surrender in pursuance of the present convention.

ARTICLE 17

The stipulations of the present convention shall be applicable, so far as the laws permit, to all His Britannic Majesty’s Dominions, except to the self-governing Dominions hereinafter named - that is to say, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia (including for this purpose Papua and Norfolk Island), the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State, and Newfoundland - and India, provided always that the said stipulations shall be applicable to any of the above-named Dominions or India in respect of which notice to that effect shall have been given on behalf of the Government of such Dominion or India by His Britannic Majesty’s Representatives at Tallin (Reval), and provided also that it shall be competent for either of the High Contracting Parties to terminate separately the application of this convention to any of the above-named Dominions or India by a notice to that effect not exceeding one year and not less than six months.

ARTICLE 18

The requisition for the surrender of a fugitive criminal, who has taken refuge in any of His Britannic Majesty’s self-governing Dominions, Colonies, or Possessions to which this convention applies shall be made to the Governor-General, Governor, or chief authority, of such self-governing Dominion, Colony, or Possession by the appropriate consular officer of the Estonian Republic.

Such requisition may be dealt with, subject always, as nearly as may be, and so far as the law of such self-governing Dominion, Colony, or Possession will allow, to the provisions of this convention, by the competent authorities of such self-governing Dominion, Colony or Possession, provided nevertheless that, if an order for the committal of the fugitive criminal to prison to await surrender shall be made, the said Governor-General, Governor, or chief authority, may, instead of issuing a warrant for the surrender of such fugitive criminal, refer the matter to His Britannic Majesty’s Government.

Requisitions for the surrender of a fugitive criminal emanating from any self-governing Dominion, Colony, or Possession of His Britannic Majesty shall be governed, as far as possible, by the rules laid down in the preceding articles of the present convention.

ARTICLE 19

It is understood that the stipulations of the two preceding articles apply in the same manner as if they were Possessions of His Britannic Majesty, to the following British Protectorates, that is to say, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Gambia Protectorate, Kenya Protectorate, Nigeria Protectorate, Northern Rhodesia, Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, Nyasaland, Sierra Leone Protectorate, Solomon Islands Protectorate, Somaliland Protectorate, Swaziland, Uganda Protectorate and Zanzibar.

It is also understood that if, after the signature of the present convention, it is considered advisable to extend its provisions to any British protectorates other than those mentioned above, or to any British-protected State, or to any territory in respect of which a mandate on behalf of the League of Nations has been accepted by His Britannic Majesty, including the territories in respect of which mandates are being exercised on behalf of His Britannic Majesty by the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Government of the Dominion of New Zealand and the Government of the Union of South Africa, the stipulations of the two preceding articles shall be deemed to apply to such protectorates or States or mandated territories from the date prescribed in the notes to be exchanged for the purpose of effecting such extension.

It is further understood that the provisions of the present convention which apply to British subjects shall be deemed also to apply to natives of any British protectorate or protected State or mandated territory to which the stipulations of the two preceding articles apply or shall hereafter apply.

ARTICLE 20

The present convention shall come into force ten days after its publication, in conformity with the forms prescribed by the laws of the High Contracting Parties. It may be terminated by either of the High Contracting Parties by a notice not exceeding one year and not less than six months.

It shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at London, as soon as possible.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the convention and have affixed thereto their respective seals.

DONE at London, the 18th day of November, in the year 1925.

Austen Chamberlain

Oskar Kallas