Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr K. Zarbaliyeva / Most of the foreigners who are jailed in Azerbaijan has been due to property-related crimes, drug trafficking and smuggling, the Azerbaijani Deputy Justice Minister and the head of Azerbaijan Penitentiary Service, Nazim Alakbarov, reported.
During the seven months of 2007 some 48 Azerbaijani citizens jailed in Russia were returned to Azerbaijan to serve their remaining sentence. Two Russian citizens were extradited from Azerbaijan, he said.
According to Alakbarov, 451 citizens of 20 countries are jailed in the Penitentiary Service which includes citizens of Georgia 146, Russia 116, Iran 98, Turkey 22 and Pakistan 14. Twenty-five women and two minors are amongst them. Four foreigners were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The latest Amnesty Act released 54 foreigners, 11 being Russians, 13 Georgians, 9 Iranians, 8 Afghans, 5 Pakistanis, 2 Turkish, 2 Bangladeshis, 2 Ukrainians, 1 Uzbekistanis, and 1 Turkmenistan.
The extradition of inmates to their countries is regulated by the Moscow Conventions on Extradition of Convicts dating 21 August 1983 and Extradition of Inmates dating 6 March 1988. Furthermore, Azerbaijan has bilateral agreements in this connection with Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Lithuania, and Kyrgyzstan, Alakbarov said.