MINSK, 23 April (BelTA) - The fifth meeting of the working group of experts of the Council of Heads of Penitentiary Services of the CIS member states was held in the form of a video conference on 22 April, BelTA learned from the press service of the CIS Executive Committee.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, the CIS Executive Committee, the CIS Anti-Terrorism Center, and the secretariat of the Council of Heads of Penitentiary Services.
The working group discussed cooperation in training personnel for penitentiary services of the CIS countries, improvement of information cooperation of penitentiary services in the interstate search for persons, including for crimes of terrorist and extremist nature. Participants of the meeting reviewed draft recommendations on combating recruitment and spread of violent extremism and terrorism in penitentiary institutions, shared their experience in ensuring security in places of detention, preventing the penetration of prohibited items (drugs, cell phones) there.
Experts stressed the relevance of improving the mechanism of transferring convicts to states of which they are citizens, in accordance with the relevant convention adopted in the CIS in 1998. Statistics show that every year the number of convicts who have expressed a desire to serve their sentence in their state of citizenship remains quite high.
Besides, representatives of CIS countries approved a preliminary draft agenda, discussed a format and time of the next meeting of the Council of Heads of Penitentiary Services. Plans are in place to hold the meeting in Kyrgyzstan in October, provided the epidemiological situation improves.
