Status on South African Government Exchange Agreements for South Africans who are imprisoned outside the country will be able to serve out their sentences locally and Foreigners who are being detained in South African prisons will be able to serve their sentences in their own countries

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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

 FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO: 2987

PUBLISHED IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 32 OF 22 OCTOBER 2010

Dr C P Mulder (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation:†

Whether the Government intends to agree to exchange agreements so that South Africans who are imprisoned outside the country will be able to serve out their sentences locally and foreigners who are being detained in South African prisons will be able to serve their sentences in their own countries; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?

REPLY:

No.

Government will not enter into Prisoner Transfer Agreements.  South African citizens arrested abroad will serve their prison sentences in the country of arrest.

Consular assistance is rendered in terms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), 1963 to South African citizens abroad who seek such assistance. 

The Department will, in the case of terminal illness make representation to the respective government to pardon a South African citizen unconditionally.

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