Kuwait extradites 20 inmates to Sri Lanka

Cairo: Kuwait has deported 20 convicted Sri Lankan prisoners under an extradition agreement between the two countries, according to media reports. The inmates, held at Kuwait’s Central Prison, were repatriated on Wednesday to Katunayake Airport on a special flight to Sri Lanka, reported the Sri Lankan Daily News.

The repatriated prisoners, who had been arrested in Kuwait on charges including drug use and smuggling, underwent the judicial process, were sentenced, and subsequently imprisoned, the report added. They arrived at Katunayake Airport aboard a Boeing C-17 aircraft, the largest aircraft in the Kuwaiti Air Force.

Approximately 50 Kuwaiti security personnel accompanied the prisoners, while a group of Sri Lankan Prison Department officials met them at the airport to transfer the inmates to a prison in Colombo.

Although 52 Sri Lankan prisoners have been repatriated on two occasions under the prisoner exchange agreement with Kuwait, no Kuwaiti prisoners have yet been transferred from Sri Lanka, the report noted.

The exchange pact was signed in 2007, and under the agreement, 32 Sri Lankan prisoners were sent back home in 2024.