TRANSFERS BETWEEN NORDIC COUNTRIES

A sentence passed in Iceland, Norway, Sweden or Denmark may be served in Finland. The request must be made by the authorities of the country in question. The judicial unit of the Criminal Sanctions Agency decides whether the request is accepted.

Likewise, a sentence passed in Finland may be served in another Nordic country. Then the proposal is made by the judicial unit of the Criminal Sanctions Agency and the decision by the authority of the country in question.

In both cases the accused must be heard.

The law on Co-operation of Enforcement of Criminal Sanctions between Finland and Other Nordic Countries (326/1963) stipulates more specifically on the enforcement.

TRANSFERS TO OTHER COUNTRIES

The international unit of the Ministry of Justice is in charge of other than transfers between Finland and other Nordic countries. The transfers are based on the Act on International Co-operation in the Enforcement of Certain Penal Sanctions (21/1987). The agreement basis for this law is the General Treaty of the European Council of Transfer of Convicts. The precondition for the transfer is, besides the acceptance of the sentencing and enforcing state, the person’s own agreement and the nationality of the enforcing state.

In August 2001 in Finland, a supplementary protocol that came into force makes it possible in certain situations to transfer the convict without his/her agreement to his home country. It is possible if he/she is avoiding the enforcement or he/she has been issued an order to leave the country. So the sentence passed in Finland may be enforced in the state whose national the convict is or where he/she has a domicile.

The decision on the transfer is made by the Ministry of Justice. If the convict opposes the transfer, he is entitled to have a lawyer paid by the state. The decision made by the Ministry of Justice can be appealed to be amended by the Helsinki Administrative Court.