Murder suspects flee to Thailand
Tuesday June 23, 2009
Victorian police have confirmed that three suspects in the stabbing Good Samaritan murder of Luke Mitchell have left Australia and flown to Thailand. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland stated that they are now moving forward to formally identify the suspects in the case and move to take all necessary steps to return them to Australia.
Extradition laws are notoriously difficult with extradition requests only viable through the Attorney-General or the Minister for Home Affairs.
Extradition is the process of a country returning an individual to another country to face criminal law charges or serve a sentence for a crime they have been found guilty of. There is also a branch of interstate extradition that exists between Australian states and territories.
The basis of Australia's legislative for extradition is the Extradition Act which outlines a number of requirements and regulations that need to be satisfied before any extradition applications can be approved.
Australia is able to make an extradition request to any country with many countries held as Australia's treaty partners which means they have obligations to consider Australia's extraditions requests. If such a treaty does not exist, extradition then comes to domestic law within the foreign country the individual has fled to.
Mr Overland said that arrests will be considered for the suspects in Luke Mitchell's murder if the Victorian police are in a position too and have a basis for it, after which extradition back to Australia would follow.
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