In
a bid to facilitate the handover process of smuggled
artifacts and to have a more strict control on sales, Iran
plans to hammer extradition agreements with several
countries.
The handover process of artifacts illegally transferred to
other nations has posed a major legal challenge for the
Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).
Thus the organization has consulted Iranian foreign and
intelligence ministries and has come up with a plan to
beef up its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with
other countries in order to accelerate the handover of
smuggled relics.
The extradition pacts would be initially signed between
Iran and its neighbors and then would be expanded in scope
to cover such countries as France, Italy, Germany and
Great Britain, said Taha Hashemi, deputy of legal and
international affairs in CHTO.
He also called for regular sessions of Iranian Committee
for Extraditing Cultural Artifacts, made up of
representatives from the interior, financial and foreign
ministries and some pertinent organizations.
Iranian cultural heritage officials say hundreds of
precious artifacts are stolen and then smuggled out of the
country and are put under hammer in large sales houses
every year.
