Singapore 'puzzled' by report on extradition deal

The Straits Times, February 8, 2007


SINGAPORE is a 'little puzzled' by a Jakarta Post report which said that Indonesia and Singapore had moved closer to signing an extradition treaty.

The report on Tuesday quoted Indonesia's chief negotiator Arif Havas Oegroseno as saying the two countries had agreed on a list of crimes, including corruption and graft, to be included in the agreement.

The Jakarta Post report added that several Indonesian lawmakers had accused Singapore of not being serious about reaching an agreement and of deliberately prolonging the talks.

In response to press queries on the remarks by Mr Havas, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday: 'I am a little puzzled. There has indeed been progress in the negotiations on an Extradition Treaty but some difficult issues still need to be settled.'

The MFA spokesman noted that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, when they met in Bali in October 2005, had agreed that negotiations on an extradition treaty would be conducted in parallel with a defence cooperation agreement.

'One cannot be concluded without the other,' the spokesman said.

Mr Havas told the Jakarta Post that officials from both countries would set a time for one final negotiation before passing the draft agreement on to their respective governments. 'We still need to talk a little bit more about legal technicalities,' he said.

He also dismissed accusations that Singapore had sought onerous conditions for extraditions.

So far there has been limited progress in talks over the defence cooperation pact, said the Jakarta Post.