Estonia has rejected more than half of a group of 18 prisoners that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service had applied to move to Tartu Prison, where Sweden rents places, Expressen reports.
"We rejected the majority of the requests because our view of the profiles of the prisoners coming to Estonia does not correspond to the terms of the agreement. We informed Sweden that they were not suitable," Tiina Unuks, head of prison operations at the Estonian Ministry of Justice, told the newspaper.
Sweden must now reconsider which candidates are more suitable, she adds.
Four prisoners on board
There were four Swedish detainees on the plane that took off from Linköping today. A good start to a historic agreement, according to Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M).
"Cooperation with the prison service and the Estonian equivalent is underway. At the same time, there is a process regarding who should be sent over in which Estonia is involved, and they also have the possibility to say no in individual cases," Strömmer tells TT.
Estonia has the right to deny certain categories of prisoners, including gang criminals and those convicted of very serious violent crimes, according to the agreement with Sweden.
Some calibration
Could it be that the Swedish prison service made a careless and overly optimistic selection of prisoners?
I don't want to evaluate that, but without being able to go into the circumstances in each individual case, it is natural and quite undramatic that right at the start of such a collaboration there is a kind of calibration of the forms around this, says Gunnar Strömmer.
According to the Justice Minister, the plan is for the volume to grow gradually over a year and be fully expanded next summer. According to the agreement, up to 600 inmates from Sweden will be placed in the prison in Tartu.
