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Treaty between the United Kingdom and Greece for the Mutual Surrender of Fugitive Criminals [1912] CATSer 1 (26 February 1912)

E101277

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND GREECE FOR THE MUTUAL SURRENDER 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 His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, having determined, by common consent, to conclude a Treaty 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, Sir Francis Edmund Hugh Elliot, a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, Grand Cross of the Royal Hellenic Order of the Redeemer, His Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Athens;

And His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, His Excellency M. Demetrius Kalergi, Officer of the Royal Hellenic Order of the Redeemer, His Majesty's Minister for Foreign Affairs;

Who, after having exhibited to each other their respective full powers and found them 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 Treaty, those persons who, being accused or convicted of any of the crimes or offences enumerated in Article 2, committed in the territory of the one Party, shall be found within the territory of the other Party.

ARTICLE 2

Extraditions shall be granted for the following crimes or offences when provided for by the laws of the requisitioning State and of the State applied to: -

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

2. Kidnapping and false imprisonment.

3. Abandoning or exposing children below the age of 7 years.

4. Abortion.

5. Abduction of persons under age.

6. Bigamy.

7. Malicious wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm with premeditation, when such acts cause death (without the intention of killing) or disease or incapacity for personal labour lasting for more than three months, or serious mutilation, or the loss or disablement of a member or organ, or other permanent infirmity.

8. Threats by letter or otherwise with intent to extort.

9. Perjury.

10. Arson.

11. Burglary, housebreaking, larceny, embezzlement, fraudulent misappropriation of property, obtaining property by false pretences.

12. Fraud and embezzlement by public officials; bribery of public officials.

13. Receiving any chattel, money, valuable security, or other property, knowing the same to have been embezzled, stolen, or feloniously obtained.

14. Counterfeiting or altering money, or knowingly bringing into circulation counterfeited or altered money.

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

16. Forgery by writing, or uttering what is forged.

17. Fraudulent bankruptcy.

18. Malicious injury to any house or building calculated to cause danger to life or property.

19. Rape.

Participation in the aforesaid crimes is also included, provided that such participation is punishable by the laws of the demanding State and of the State applied to.

ARTICLE 3

No Greek subject shall be surrendered by the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes to the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and no British subject shall be surrendered by his Government to the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes.

ARTICLE 4

Extradition shall not take place if the person claimed on the part of His Britannic Majesty's Government, or of the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, has already been tried, discharged, or punished, or is waiting trial in the territory of the United Kingdom or in Greece respectively for the crime or offence for which his extradition is demanded.

If the person claimed on the part of the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, or of His Britannic Majesty's Government, should be awaiting trial or undergoing sentence for any other crime or offence in the territory of Greece or in the United Kingdom, respectively, his extradition shall be deferred until after he has been discharged, whether by acquittal or on expiration of sentence.

ARTICLE 5

Extradition shall not be granted if exemption from prosecution or punishment has been acquired by lapse of time, according to the laws of the State applied to.

Neither shall it be granted in the case of persons convicted by default, or otherwise, unless the sentence inflicted be at least one year's imprisonment.

ARTICLE 6

The person claimed shall not be surrendered if the crime in respect of which extradition is applied for be deemed by the party to whom application is made to be a political offence, or connected with such an offence, or if the person claimed proves that the application for extradition has in fact been made with a view to try or to punish him for an offence of this character.

ARTICLE 7

A person whose surrender has been granted shall in no case be detained or tried 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.

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

The person who has been claimed, and whose extradition shall have been granted, shall not be tried or punished for any political offence committed prior to his extradition, nor for any matter connected with such an offence, nor for any crimes or offences not provided for in the present Treaty.

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 judicial authority setting forth clearly the nature of the crime or offence with which the person claimed is charged. The said warrant shall also be accompanied 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 a copy of the judgement passed on 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.

In the event of any doubt arising as to whether the crime or offence, in respect of which the prosecution has been instituted, comes within the stipulations of the present Treaty, the Government applied to shall be at liberty to require all such further information as it may consider necessary or of assistance in order to form an opinion, after which it shall decide what action shall be taken on the demand for extradition.

The requisitioning Government, in furnishing such further information to the Government applied to, shall, at the same time, place at the disposal of the latter all such documents as may be necessary or useful in enabling it to form an opinion.

ARTICLE 9

In cases of urgency provisional arrest may be effected upon notice being given, by post or telegraph, through the diplomatic channel that one of the documents enumerated in Article 8 has been issued, provided, however, that such notice shall always be given to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the State applied to.

Provisional arrest shall be effected in the manner and in accordance with the rules laid down by the laws of the State applied to. It shall not be maintained if, within a period of one month from the date on which it has been effected, the State applied to has not been furnished with one of the documents specified in Article 8 of the present Treaty.

ARTICLE 10

All papers and documents issued by the authorities of the Contracting States which may be produced in virtue of Articles 8 and 13 of the present Treaty must be accompanied by an authenticated translation in the French language.

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 had been committed in the territory of the same State, or if extradition is claimed in respect of an offence of which the fugitive has been already convicted, to prove that the prisoner is the person convicted, 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.

ARTICLE 12

Extradition shall be granted in accordance with the rules laid down by the law of the State applied to.

ARTICLE 13

Warrants, depositions, and affirmations, issued or taken in the dominions of one of the High Contracting Parties, and copies of such documents as well as certificates or judicial documents stating the fact of a conviction shall be admitted as valid evidence in the proceedings taken in the dominions of the other party, if they bear the signature or are accompanied by the certificate of a Judge, Magistrate, or officer of the State in which they have been issued or taken, provided that such warrants, depositions, affirmations, copies, certificates, or judicial documents are authenticated, either by the oath of some witness, or by being sealed with the seal of the Minister of Justice, or some other Minister of State.

ARTICLE 14

If the accused or sentenced person be not a subject of one of the Contracting Parties, the Government to whom application for extradition is made shall be at liberty to take such action in respect of the application, as it may think fit, and to surrender the person claimed to be tried in the State in which the crime or offence has been committed.

Nevertheless, the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hellenes reserves to itself the option of surrendering the person claimed to the State to which he belongs, instead of surrendering him to the State in which the crime or offence has been committed.

ARTICLE 15

If a fugitive criminal who has been arrested has not been surrendered and conveyed away within three months after his arrest, or within three months after the decision of the Court upon the return to a writ of habeas corpus in the United Kingdom, he shall be set at liberty.

ARTICLE 16

When extradition is granted all articles connected with the crime or offence, or which may serve as proofs of the crime, which are found in the possession of the person claimed at the time of his arrest, or which may be afterwards discovered, shall, if the competent authority of the State applied to so direct, be seized and restored to the requisitioning State.

Such restoration shall be carried out, even if extradition be not carried out owing to the escape or death of the person claimed.

The rights, however, which third persons, not involved in the prosecution, may have acquired over the said articles are reserved, and the latter shall, should the case arise, be restored to them, free of charge, at the termination of the proceedings.

ARTICLE 17

All expenses arising out of an application for extradition, also the costs of the arrest, maintenance, and transport of the person whose extradition shall have been granted, as well as of the dispatch and forwarding of the articles which, by the provisions of Article 16, are to be returned or restored, shall be borne by the requisitioning State and by the State applied to within the limits of their respective territories.

The cost of transport or other expenses outside the territory of the State applied to shall be borne by the demanding State.

ARTICLE 18

The stipulations of the present Treaty shall be applicable to the Colonies and foreign possessions of His Britannic Majesty.

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 Greece in such Colony or possession.

Such requisition may be disposed of, subject always, as nearly as may be, to the provisions of this Treaty, by the said Governor or chief authority. He shall, however, be at liberty either to grant the surrender or to refer the matter to his Government.

His Britannic Majesty shall, however, be at liberty to make special arrangements in the British Colonies and foreign possessions for the surrender of criminals from Greece who may take refuge within such Colonies and foreign possessions, on the basis of the provisions of the present Treaty.

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

ARTICLE 19

The present Treaty shall come into operation ten days after its publication in conformity with the laws of the respective countries.

Crimes committed prior to the coming into force of the Treaty shall not form the subject of an application for extradition except in cases in which the persons claimed shall have taken refuge in the territory of the State applied to after the exchange of ratifications.

Each of the Contracting Parties shall be at liberty at any time to denounce the present Treaty upon giving six months' notice to the other Party of its intention to do so.

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

DONE in duplicate at Athens the twenty-fourth (eleventh) day of September, one thousand nine hundred and ten.

Francis E. H. Elliot

D. Kalergi