Deputies in Congress are in agreement with a proposal for a new extradition treaty with the United States, but are waiting for an announcement from the Constitutional Court (TC).
Chamber of Deputies Justice Committee chairman Demostenes Martinez said that the 2010 Constitution establishes that the Constitutional Court has control over international treaties. He added that any bilateral treaty between the United States and the Dominican Republic should be reciprocal.
Nelson Arroyo, from the PRD, said that in the case of extradition, the discussion should be unlimited and should work both ways, highlighting that he had never known the US to send anyone to the Dominican Republic to face trial.
Henry Meran, chairman of the lower chamber’s Ethics Committee, said that he approved of the idea of having a new extradition treaty with the United States, describing the existing agreement as “100 years old and outdated.”
Meran added that although the existing treaty is effectively obsolete it does have a series of safeguards that should be maintained in any new treaty. It states that any Dominican who is extradited should not receive a higher sentence than they would have received in their own country, and referred to the existence of the death penalty in several US states.
Read more in Spanish: http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/7/8/329016/Diputados-favorecen-revision-convenio-extradicion-con-Estados-Unidos