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Treaty between Great Britain and Colombia for the Mutual Surrender of Fugitive Criminals [1899] CATSer 1 (16 December 1899)

E101258

TREATY BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND COLOMBIA FOR THE MUTUAL SURRENDER OF FUGITIVE CRIMINALS

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his Excellency the President of the Republic of Colombia, having judged it expedient, with a view to the better administration of justice, and to the prevention of crime within the two countries and their jurisdictions, that persons charged with or convicted of the crimes or offences hereinafter enumerated, and being fugitives from justice, should, under certain circumstances, be reciprocally delivered up, have named as their Plenipotentiaries to conclude a Treaty, that is to say:

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, William John Dickson, Esq., her Minister Resident to the Republic of Colombia; and

His Excellency the President of the Republic of Colombia, Vicente Restrepo, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the said Republic;

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles:

ARTICLE I

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

ARTICLE II

Extradition shall be reciprocally granted for the following crimes or offences:

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. Unlawful carnal knowledge, or any attempt to have unlawful carnal knowledge, of a girl under 16 years of age, if the evidence produced justifies committal for those crimes according to the laws of both the Contracting Parties;

6. Indecent assault;

7. Kidnapping and false imprisonment, child-stealing;

8. Abduction;

9. Bigamy;

10. Malicious wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm;

11. Assault occasioning actual bodily harm;

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

13. Perjury or subornation of perjury;

14. Arson;

15. Burglary or housebreaking, robbery with violence, larceny, or embezzlement;

16. Fraud by a bailee, banker, agent, factor, trustee, director, member, or public officer of any Company, made criminal by any law for the time being in force.

17. 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 unlawfully obtained.

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

(b) Forgery, or counterfeiting or altering, or uttering what is forged, counterfeited, or altered.

(c) Knowingly making, without lawful authority, any instrument, tool, or engine adapted and intended for the counterfeiting of coin, or forgery of any paper money of the respective countries.

19. Crimes against bankruptcy law.

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

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

22. Crimes committed at sea -

(a) Piracy by the law of nations.

(b) Sinking or destroying a vessel at sea, or attempting or conspiring to do so.

(c) Revolt, or conspiracy to revolt, by two or more persons on board a ship on the high seas against the authority of the master.

(d) Assault on board a ship on the high seas with intent to, destroy life or to do grievous bodily harm.

23. Dealing in slaves in such manner as to constitute a criminal offence against the laws of both States.

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

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

ARTICLE III

Either Government may, in its absolute discretion, refuse to deliver up its own subjects to the other Government.

ARTICLE IV

The extradition shall not take place if the person claimed on the part of Her Majesty's Government, or the person claimed on the part of the Government of Colombia, has already been tried and discharged, or punished, or is still under trial in the territory of Colombia or in the United Kingdom respectively, for the crime for which his extradition is demanded.

If the person claimed on the part of Her Majesty's Government, or on the part of the Government of Colombia, should be under examination for any other crime in the territory of Colombia or in the United Kingdom respectively, his extradition shall be deferred until the conclusion of the trial and the full execution of any punishment awarded to him.

ARTICLE V

The extradition shall not take place if, subsequently to the commission of the crime, 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 applied to.

ARTICLE VI

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

ARTICLE VII

A person surrendered can in no case be kept in prison, or be brought to trial, in the State to which the surrender has been made, for any other crime, 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 committed after the extradition.

ARTICLE VIII

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 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 IX

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 X

A fugitive criminal may be apprehended under a warrant issued by any Police Magistrate, Justice of the Peace, or other competent authority in either country, 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 had been committed, or the person convicted, in that part of the dominions of the two Contracting Parties in which the Magistrate, Justice of the Peace, or other competent authority exercises jurisdiction; provided, however, that in the United Kingdom the accused shall, in such case, be sent as speedily as possible before a Police Magistrate in London. He shall, in accordance with this Article, be discharged, as well in Colombia as in the United Kingdom, if within the term of 30 days a requisition for extradition shall not have been made by the Diplomatic Agent of his country, 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 country which may come into a port of the other.

ARTICLE XI

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 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 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 15 days from the date of his committal to prison to await the warrant for his surrender.

ARTICLE XII

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 statements of witnesses taken in the other State, or copies thereof, and likewise the warrants and sentences issued therein, and certificates of, or judicial documents stating, the fact of a conviction, provided the same are authenticated as follows:

1. A warrant must purport to be signed by a Judge, Magistrate, or officer of the other State.

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.

4. 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; but any other mode of authentication for the time being permitted by law where the examination is taken may be substituted for the foregoing.

ARTICLE XIII

If the individual claimed by one of the two High Contracting Parties in pursuance of the present Treaty should be also claimed by one or several other Powers, on account of other crimes or offences committed upon their respective territories, his extradition shall be granted to that State whose demand is earliest in date.

ARTICLE XIV

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 XV

All articles seized which were in the possession of the person to be surrendered at the time of his apprehension shall, if the competent authority of the State applied to for the extradition has ordered the delivery of such articles, be given up when the extradition takes place; and the said delivery shall extend not merely to the stolen articles, but to everything that may serve as a proof of the crime.

ARTICLE XVI

All expenses connected with extradition shall be borne by the demanding State.

ARTICLE XVII

The stipulations of the present Treaty shall be applicable to the Colonies and foreign Possessions of Her Britannic Majesty, so far as the laws for the time being in force in such Colonies and foreign Possessions respectively will allow.

The requisition for the surrender of a fugitive criminal who has taken refuge in any of such Colonies or foreign Possessions shall be made to the Governor or chief authority of such Colony or Possession by the chief Consular officer of the Republic of Colombia in such, Colony or Possession.

Such requisition may be disposed of, subject always, as nearly as may be, and so far as the law of such Colony or foreign Possession will allow, to the provisions of this Treaty, by the said Governor or chief authority, who, however, shall be at liberty either to grant the surrender or to refer the matter to his Government.

Her Britannic Majesty shall, however, be at liberty to make special arrangements in the British Colonies and foreign Possessions for the surrender of Colombian criminals who may take refuge within such Colonies and foreign Possessions, on the basis, as nearly as may be, and so far as the law of such Colony or foreign Possession will allow, of the provisions of the present Treaty.

Requisitions for the surrender of a fugitive criminal emanating from any Colony or foreign Possession of Her Britannic Majesty shall be governed by the rules laid down in the preceding Articles of the present Treaty.

ARTICLE XVIII

The present Treaty shall come into force 10 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.

The Treaty, after receiving the approval of the Congress of Colombia, shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Bogota as soon as possible.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto their respective seals.

DONE at Bogota, this 27th day of October, in the year of Our Lord 1888.

W. J. Dickson

Vincente Restrepo