Foreign prisoners convicted and sentenced in Uganda could be transferred to their respective countries to serve their sentence, a new Bill before Parliament seeks.
The Transfer of Convicted Offenders Bill proposes for a mutual agreement for the transfer of persons convicted between Uganda and other Commonwealth countries for the purpose of serving their sentences and provides for the conditions such as treatment and other arrangements.
The Bill also gives powers to the Justice Ministry to apply the same law to offenders whose countries are not in the Commonwealth. It empowers the minister to prescribe regulations on how a convict can apply for transfer.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Richard Buteera, told the Legal Committee of Parliament on Thursday that there was also need to add non-Commonwealth countries “since many of the criminals in the country may belong to non-commonwealth countries.”
The Bill, however, does not indicate which of the two states would incur the transfer immigration costs.
It says a convict can be transferred only if in the opinion of the minister that person has no established citizenship or nationality but has a right of domicile or permanent residence in that administering country.
“When transferring a convict, there shouldn’t be any pending appeal against his judgement and or the normal appeal period has already expired without an appeal being brought forward,” the proposed law says.
The Bill also provides that by the time of transfer, the convict should at least be having not less than six months to finish his sentence. However, if the sentence has less than six months to end, Mr Buteera said the two countries will make arrangements to effect the transfer.
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