A Swiss man serving an 18-year sentence on drug charges in Taiwan has become the first inmate to be repatriated under a 2020 bilateral judicial cooperation agreement, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said Thursday.
The man, jailed in 2015 for trafficking Class 1 narcotics into Taiwan, will now serve out the rest of his sentence in Switzerland.
To facilitate the transfer, Switzerland’s government sent a request to Taiwan’s Justice Ministry via the Trade Office of Swiss Industries (TOSI) in Taiwan, the MOJ said in a statement.
After negotiations and the signing of the agreement on the transfer of prisoners between Taiwan and Switzerland in 2020, the ministry convened a group review meeting on the matter and assented to the transfer, according to the statement.
The ministry said that the task of handing over the prisoner back to his home country was completed on Aug. 30 through the joint efforts of various government agencies in Taiwan and the TOSI.
To date, Taiwan has repatriated seven inmates from Germany, two from the United Kingdom, one from Denmark, one from Poland, and one from Switzerland to serve out the remainder of their sentences, according to the MOJ.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel