India-Hong Kong sign treaty to exchange sentenced prisoners

India has signed a treaty with Hong Kong for transfer of sentenced prisoners into each other's country, reflecting the growing bonhomie with the special administrative region of China.
Under the pact India and Hong Kong have agreed that sentenced persons, who have been convicted and sentenced as a result of their commission of criminal offences, will get the opportunity to serve their sentences within their own society.
A sentenced person may be transferred under the conditions that the death penalty has not been imposed on him or her, or, if imposed, has been commuted, the judgement is final and no inquiry, trial or any other criminal proceeding is pending against the sentenced person in the transferring party, the sources said.

Besides, the acts or omissions for which that person was sentenced in the transferring party constitute an offence under the law of the receiving party or would constitute an offence according to the law of the receiving party if it had been committed on its jurisdiction, at the time of receipt of the request for transfer, the sentenced person still has at least one year of the sentence to serve or is undergoing a sentence of life imprisonment.
As per the treaty, if the sentenced person has expressed an interest in being transferred, the transferring party shall send the following information and documents to the receiving party unless either the receiving party or the transferring party has already decided that it will not agree to the transfer.

The name, nationality and residence status, date and place of birth of the sentenced person, his address, if any, in the receiving Party, a statement of the facts upon which the sentence was based, the nature, duration and date of commencement of the sentence.