OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

EXTRADITION TREATY BETWEEN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC AND THE SWISS CONFEDERATION

1

Signed at Buenos Aires November 21, 1906; ratifications exchanged December 6, 1911

The Government of the Argentine Republic and the Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, being desirous of strengthening the ties of friendship existing between both countries and of arriving at a uniform action in regard to the extradition of those persons accused of crime in accordance with the respective laws in force in the two countries, have resolved to conclude a convention, and have appointed for this purpose their respective plenipotentiaries, to wit:

The Government of the Argentine Republic, Señor Doctor Manuel Augusto Montes de Oca, Minister-Secretary in the Department of Foreign Relations and Worship, and

The Federal Council of the Swiss Confederation, M. Joseph Choffat, Minister Resident of Switzerland in the Argentine Republic,

Who, after having communicated their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I

The high contracting parties engage to surrender to each other in accordance with the provisions of the present convention, those persons who, being accused or convicted of any of the crimes or offenses enumerated in Article II, shall have taken refuge in the territory of the other state.

1 Boletin del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, Argentine Republic, January, 1912, Vol. XXXIII, No. IV, p. 349.

ARTICLE II

The crimes or offenses for which extradition is to be granted are the following:

1. Homicide;

2. Murder;

3. Parricide;

4. Infanticide;

5. Poisoning;

6. Voluntary abortion;

7. Voluntary assault occasioning unintentional death, or resulting in the serious or permanent mutilation of a member or organ of the body;

8. Rape, carnal knowledge, or any attempt against chastity;

9. Attempt, with or without violence, against the chastity of children of either sex, under the age of fourteen years;

10. Bigamy;

11. Abduction, and kidnapping of persons; suppression or substitution of children;

12. Child-stealing.

13. Falsification or alteration of money, paper money, commercial currency paper, shares of stock, and other certificates issued by the state, corporations, companies, or individuals; uttering, circulating, or counterfeiting postage stamps, stamps, coins, or state seals, or seals of other offices; introducing, uttering or using said counterfeit objects or goods; using false documents or acts to accomplish these different ends; fraudulent use of stamps, seals and authentic marks;

14. Falsifying a public or private document; falsifying letters of exchange or any other commercial paper and using said falsified documents;

15. False testimony, perjury or subornation of perjury, or bribery in any civil or criminal matter;

16. Bribery of public officials;

17. Embezzlement or misappropriation of public funds; fraudulent exaction of funds by public officials or depositories;

18. Arson and abuse of explosives;

19. Voluntary destruction or damage of railways, steamers, ports, electrical apparatus and appliances (telegraphs, telephones) and endangering the exploitation thereof;

20. Highway robbery; extortion; robbery, and concealment of the robber or of the stolen goods;

21. Voluntary acts committed with the purpose of sinking, wrecking, destroying, disabling or damaging a ship when danger might result thereby to a third party;

22. Embezzlement;

23. Abuse of confidence, and fraudulent appropriation of money; 24. Fraudulent bankruptcy.

Extradition is to be granted for participation in or attempt to commit any one of the aforesaid crimes, provided such participation or attempt. be punishable by the laws of the contracting countries.

Extradition shall be granted for the crimes above named if the acts constituting the same are punishable with no less than one year of imprisonment according to the laws of the contracting parties.

ARTICLE III

Extradition shall not take place

1. If the individual is a native or naturalized citizen of the nation from whom surrender is demanded;

2. For political offenses or for acts connected with political offenses; 3. If the crime has been committed in the territory of the nation on whom the demand is made;

4. If the requisition for the extradition is made for the same crime or offense for which the person claimed has been prosecuted, convicted or acquitted in the country on which the demand is made;

5. If the sentence or prosecution is barred by the statute of limitations. in accordance with the laws of the claiming state or of the state on whom the demand is made, before the arrest or summoning of the person claimed.

ARTICLE IV

Extradition shall not take place if the person claimed is prosecuted for the same crime or offense in the country from which extradition is asked.

ARTICLE V

If the penalty imposed by the laws of the state demanding the extradition for the offense which causes said demand consists in corporal punishment, extradition shall depend upon the condition that the penalty, if imposed, shall be commuted for that of imprisonment or fine.

ARTICLE VI

Extradition shall not be granted except on condition that the person surrendered shall not be prosecuted before a court of exception.

ARTICLE VII

If the person for whom requisition is made shall be in course of trial, or shall have been convicted of an offense other than that for which the surrender is demanded, extradition shall only take place after the trial shall have been concluded and the sentence fulfilled or a pardon granted.

ARTICLE VIII

Persons whose extradition may be granted shall not be prosecuted nor punished for crimes or offenses committed prior to those for which extradition is asked, nor for acts connected with these crimes or offenses, unless the country surrendering them should consent thereto and provided that said crimes appear amongst those enumerated in Article II. Likewise they shall not be surrendered to a third state demanding their surrender for acts different from those which have caused the extradition.

These restrictions shall not apply if the person whose extradition has been granted expressly consents to being prosecuted or sentenced for an offense committed previously and not mentioned in the requisition for extradition, or consents to be surrendered to a third state, or finally, if he resides in the country where he has been tried for a period of three months from the date in which he was served his sentence, or from the date of his pardon and liberty, or in case he should have returned to the territory of the state demanding his extradition.

ARTICLE IX

If, in accordance with the provisions set forth in the present convention, the extradition should not have been granted, the person claimed shall be tried, if there is reason therefor, by the courts of the state applied to, in conformity with its laws, and the final judgment must be communicated to the government making the requisition.

On the other hand, the state at whose request the citizen of the other state should have been tried and sentenced, binds itself in turn not to prosecute any action against the same person and for the same act, unless

said person should not have served the sentence imposed on him in his own country.

ARTICLE X

When the crime or offense for which requisition is made has been committed in the territory of a third state not demanding the surrender of the offender, the extradition shall not be granted, except when the laws of the country on whom such demand is made shall authorize the prosecution for the same offenses committed outside its territory.

ARTICLE XI

If the individual whose extradition is claimed in pursuance of the present convention, is also claimed by one or several other governments for crimes committed in their respective territories, his extradition shall be granted to that state in whose territory he should have committed the most grievous offense, and in case of the offenses being equally serious, to the one whose demand for extradition is earliest in date.

ARTICLE XII

If the individual claimed is not a citizen of the demanding state, and should his government also claim him for the same crime, the government on whom such demand is made shall be empowered to surrender him to whichever it may be convenient.

ARTICLE XIII

The request for extradition shall always be made through the diplomatic agents, and in default thereof, through the consul of highest rank of the country demanding the extradition.

It must be accompanied.

1. By the original or authenticated copy of the warrant of arrest or of any other order to the same effect, or by the adverse judgment and sentence rendered by the competent authority according to the formalities prescribed by the laws of the country claiming the extradition; These documents must disclose the acts on which the accusation is based, the place where the same have been committed, and the date thereof;

2. By a copy of the provisions of the penal law applicable to the crime or offense in question.

3. By a description, as accurate as possible, of the person claimed.