Poland agrees to enforce sentences imposed by UN war crimes tribunal

Poland today became the sixteenth European country to sign an accord agreeing to enforce the sentences imposed by the United Nations tribunal set up to deal with the worst war crimes committed during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.

Anyone convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and given a jail term can now serve that sentence in a Polish prison after the agreement was signed in The Hague, the Dutch city where the tribunal is headquartered.

Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Ukraine, Portugal, Estonia and Slovakia have already entered into similar enforcement of sentences agreements with the ICTY.

More than 51 people convicted by the tribunal have either served, or are currently serving, their sentence in one of the countries which have signed an agreement. Three others are awaiting transfer to one of the States.