Kazakhstan ratifies extradition agreements with Spain

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has signed the laws On ratification of the Extradition Agreement between Kazakhstan and Spain and On ratification of the Agreement between Kazakhstan and Spain on Transfer of Sentenced Persons, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the President’s official website. Earlier first deputy General Prosecutor Iogan Merkel told Kazakhstan MPs that extradition of Almaty terrorist attack suspect was being discussed. He also said that Spanish citizens have never been sentenced by Kazakhstan courts, but a person named Mr. Mambetov was convicted by a Spanish court. “He caused serious bodily harm to a Spanish citizen and was sentenced to 7 years in jail. We requested his temporary transfer as he committed a murder in Astana. We sentenced him here and then returned him back to Spain. His Spanish sentence will be over in 2014 and then he will be transferred to Kazakhstan to serve the local sentence,” Merkel said. According to him, the total of 2,465 Kazakhstan citizens are currently on the wanted list, including 2,285 on the interstate list (in CIS countries) and 180 people on the international list. Location of 50 of the people has been identified with the help of Interpol.