[JURIST] Slovakia has signed an enforcement of sentences agreement [PDF text] with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] to allow ICTY convicts to be held in Slovakian prisons, the ICTY announced [press release] Monday. Under the agreement, ICTY suspects who are held at a detention unit [ICTY backgrounder] in The Hague during trial may be moved to Slovakian jails after conviction. Sentences to be served under the agreement cannot exceed the Slovakian maximum sentence for the crime.

Slovakia is the fifteenth UN member state to offer its jails to house prisoners convicted by the ICTY. Last August, Ukraine became the first Eastern European country to agree to house ICTY convicts [JURIST report]; most recently, Estonia signed an enforcement of sentences agreement [JURIST report] with the ICTY in February. Over 35 ICTY convicts have used the enforcement of sentence agreements to serve their sentences in an offering country, and five transfers are pending. The UN News Centre has more.