Five prisoners repatriated this year

FIVE prisoners have been transferred from Irish jails to their native country this year under repatriation laws.

Victims and their families have expressed anger that criminals might not serve their full sentence if they are returned to complete their prison terms in their own country.

But dozens of Irish people convicted abroad have also benefited from the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons since it was ratified here in 1995.

Since the start of this year five Irish citizens have been sent from British prisons to finish their sentences here.

A further eight were repatriated from British jails to the Irish prison system last year, and 84 more prisoners were transferred here from some of the 49 countries in the convention in previous years.

During the same period, 52 non- nationals have been transferred from Irish prisons to their own country, including five this year and five last year.

A detailed process has to be gone through before any prisoner can be transferred, which normally takes up to 14 months.

“It’s a decision for the Minister for Justice,” a Department of Justice spokesperson said last night. The family of murder victim Gráinne Dillon reacted angrily this week to news that her killer has applied to be transferred to a prison in Portugal to be closer to his sick mother. Paulo Alexander Nascimento was convicted and sentenced to life last March for shooting the 24-year-old Cork woman at a Jurys Inn in Limerick where they were both working in January last year.

The convention allows applications to be turned down if there is a chance they might be released much earlier in their own country. There are around 200 foreign prisoners serving sentences in Irish jails on any given day.