Cambodia approves prisoner transfer deal with India

PHNOM PENH, The Cambodian government has approved an agreement that will enable transfer of prisoners between the country and India, said English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post on Wednesday.

"It is a response to international law," said Phay Siphan, spokesman of the Council of Ministers.

According to the agreement, if an Indian national were to be arrested, convicted and sentenced for a crime in Cambodia, he or she could be transferred to India to serve out the resulting sentence, and vice verse, he said.

Sau Raj Ray, first secretary of the Indian Embassy, said that a memorandum of understanding on prisoner transfer was once signed in 2007 when Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen visited India.

"This is part of an ongoing bilateral exchange," he said.

There are now 1,500 to 2,000 Indian nationals living in Cambodia, and in 2008 around 880 Cambodians visited India, he said, adding that there are no Cambodian prisoners in Indian jails and no Indian prisoners in Cambodian jails either.