By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-10-20 02:32:02 | Updated at 2024-10-20 08:40:19
6 hours ago
This is the seventh in a series of interviews with consuls general of emerging and belt and road economies with which Hong Kong is keen to build ties. Here are the previous ones.
Brazil is negotiating an extradition agreement with Hong Kong to facilitate the transfer of detained drug traffickers, the country’s envoy to the city has said, as the financial hub copes with a surge of narcotics smuggling cases.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Consul General Manuel Innocencio De Lacerda Santos Jnr said about 30 Brazilian nationals were currently detained in Hong Kong on drug trafficking charges and many preferred returning to the country to “be closer to their families” given the often lengthy judicial process.
“Today, negotiations for transferring prisoners from Hong Kong back to Brazil are case by case and a little bit slow, so an agreement would speed those things up,” Santos said.
Consulate staff added extradition currently could take “two to three years” for each offender.
Santos said discussions were under way between authorities from both sides and that the agreement was close to completion.
