Russia’s State Duma has ratified an agreement between Russia and Turkey on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Cases and Extradition. The document was signed in Ankara on December 1, 2014.
Under the agreement, the sides are committed to providing legal assistance to each other during an investigation, prosecution or other legal proceedings, and also to mutually extradite individuals located on the territory of one another’s countries for criminal prosecution or executing a sentence by the requesting country for extraditable offences.
These crimes include those that are punishable by imprisonment of no less than a year or a more of severe punishment.
Over the past two years, Russia and Turkey have sent 12 and 11 extradition requests to each other, respectively, Russian Deputy Justice Minister Maxim Travnikov said.
"Turkey’s authorities have made only one decision on the extradition requests, while the other 11 remain unanswered. We hope that the agreement will help us make progress on this matter," TASS cited him as saying.
Turkey has still not ratified the agreement, the Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky said. He hopes that the Turkish parliament will carry out this ratification, explaining that there are issues of a technical character.
