Indian govt approves agreement on prisoner transfers with Estonia

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The Indian Cabinet has endorsed an agreement between India and Estonia on the transfer of sentenced persons, the Business Standard reported on Thursday.

Last week, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons between Estonia and India is awaiting approval by the Indian government.

They said that following deputy secretary general Annely Kolk's meeting with officials of the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in August, the Indian ministry forwarded the prisoner transfer agreement to the government for endorsement.

Estonia says the agreement is needed urgently to enable the Estonian ship guards sentenced to jail by a South Indian court to return to Estonia.

Police in India's southernmost state Tamil Nadu on Oct. 18, 2013 arrested 35 crew and security personnel on board the anti-piracy vessel Seaman Guard Ohio, including 14 Estonian citizens alongside Britons, Ukrainians and Indians. They were charged in December of the same year with illegal refueling, illegal handling of firearms and illegal entry into territorial waters, and released on bail in April 2014.

After being handled in various court instances the case was returned by India's Supreme Court to the Tuticorin magistrate court which on Jan. 11 this year sentenced the men to five years' imprisonment. At the end of January the ship guards decided to appeal the verdict and applied for bail. The bail application was rejected on Feb. 29 and the appeal hearing was set for June 1 but has since then been postponed several times.

The Estonian government endorsed the agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons at the beginning of July. A high official of the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs promised at the beginning of August swift progress with the accord.

However, the agreement does not apply to sentenced persons as long as the appeals process is ongoing.

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