Bahrain MPs to vote today on exchange of prisoners

Manama : MPs will vote today on a proposal to exchange prisoners with the countries that have large communities living here in Bahrain.

The proposal seeks exchanging prisoners between certain countries and the Kingdom, so they can spend their jail terms in their homelands and near their families.

Presented by MP Jamal Dawood in 2015, the proposal is intended to achieve social and psychological stability of convicts, providing them with humanitarian aid by allowing their families to visit them in their countries, rehabilitate and reform them and combat evading judicial verdicts.

After being referred to Parliament’s Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee, the panel approved the proposal as it serves diplomatic and humanitarian purposes. The committee said in a recently issued report that it consulted different official authorities in this regard.

Foreign Affairs Ministry apparently informed the committee that “it’s feared that the convicts wouldn’t serve their sentences when they’re sent back to their countries and may be released.”

According to the committee’s report, the Ministry also told that the Kingdom of Bahrain is already a part of several agreements that instructs the exchange of prisoners in certain circumstances.

On their part, the Interior Ministry officials replied to the committee’s queries by stating that the matter doesn’t fall within its jurisdiction.

However, the committee mentioned in its report that it had approved the proposal and it’s for the rest of the MPs to vote on it today so it could be referred to the other branch of the Legislative Authority (Shura Council) before it could be referred to the government.