[JURIST] Estonia 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 Estonian 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 Estonian jails after conviction. Sentences to be served under the agreement cannot exceed the Estonian maximum sentence for the crime. The agreement now must be ratified by the Riigikogu [official website], the Estonian Parliament.

Estonia is the fourteenth 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 enforce ICTY sentences [JURIST report]. Over 35 ICTY convicts have used the enforcement of sentence agreements to serve their sentences in an offering country, and seven transfers are pending.