JEDDAH: Saudi authorities have received eight Saudi citizens who were serving jail terms in Iraqi prisons, ahead of a new extradition treaty to be signed between the two countries, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Riyadh said yesterday.
Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency, the spokesman said the Kingdom was making arrangements for the extradition of 16 Iraqis currently in Saudi jails as part of a bilateral agreement.
The spokesman called the exchange of convicts as part of joint efforts by Saudi Arabia and Iraq to consolidate security cooperation and within the framework of an extradition treaty being discussed by the two countries. The new treaty stipulates “the exchange of convicted prisoners... so that they serve the rest of their sentences close to their families,” SPA said quoting the Interior Ministry spokesman.
The spokesman did not say how many Saudis were being held in Iraq.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffak Al-Rubaie said in March that Baghdad had repatriated six Saudis, one of whom was wanted by security authorities in Saudi Arabia, which has been fighting suspected Al-Qaeda militants for more than five years.
He said Saudi Arabia has provided the Iraqi government with a list of 434 Iraqi nationals currently held in Saudi jails, most of them were convicted of drug possession and trafficking.
He said the two countries had agreed to take numerous measures to strengthen border security, including monitoring the transfer of funds and the movement of individuals who travel directly between the two countries or through a third country.
Al-Rubaie stressed that his government wants to close the file of the Iraqi refugees in Saudi Arabia, “because there is no justification for their stay in the Kingdom.”
Saudi courts have handed down verdicts against 340 Iraqi nationals, of whom 306 were convicted on drug trafficking charges while 93 others are still under trial. The Iraqis were also jailed for thefts, murder, unpaid debts, illegal crossing of border, overstaying residence visas, and illegal transfer of funds.
Al-Rubaie said the Iraqi government was holding fewer than 100 Saudis, who had all been tried and convicted, while US-led forces were holding fewer than 50.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said recently that his country would soon sign an extradition treaty with Kingdom. “We have completed the drafting of an extradition accord which will be signed soon between the Kingdom and Iraq,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, citing the lack of security in Iraq, has yet to reopen its embassy in Baghdad more than four years after the neighbors restored diplomatic relations in July 2004.
