The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Canberra informs that the Government of Australia has completed its domestic legal requirements for the entry into force of the Treaty on Extradition between the Czech Republic and Australia. Consequently, the Treaty will enter into force on 1 July 2024.

The Treaty will create the legal framework for the mutual extradition of persons and will allow for a better and more efficient way of conducting criminal prosecutions by the competent authorities of both countries, as well as for the subsequent enforcement of criminal decisions. The principles of the Treaty will be applied by the courts, the public prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Czech Police will be involved in the implementation of extradition requests.

The absence of a bilateral treaty has created a certain limit to mutual cooperation between the two countries in the field of extradition. This problem arose as a result of the negative stance taken by Australia after the separation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1992 on the further mutual application of the Treaty between the Czechoslovak Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the Mutual Extradition of Criminals of 11 November 1925, as amended by the Protocol to the Treaty of 4 June 1926, as the bilateral treaty basis for extradition between Australia and the Czech Republic. After that date, cases were recorded where offenders avoided prosecution for crimes committed in the Czech Republic by staying in Australia, but Australia refused to extradite them until a bilateral international treaty was negotiated.

Work on the adoption of this treaty began in 1992 and has continued by correspondence since 1993 with a mutual exchange of comments and opinions, but in 2004 the Australian side suspended its activities in order to prepare new national extradition legislation. In 2008, following diplomatic interventions by the Czech side, the negotiations were resumed. The text of the Treaty in English was finalised by delegations of experts from both countries in September 2008 in Prague. After the Czech version of the text was sent to the Australian side and the Australian side gave its consent in February 2010, the material was submitted for domestic discussion and approval.

On 10 May 2010, the Ministry of Justice was assigned a task - Proposal for the negotiation of an Extradition Treaty between the Czech Republic and Australia. The deadline for completion of the task was set for 30 September 2010 and was repeatedly extended. The reason for the extension of the deadline for the fulfilment of this task was the fact that the Australian side, by a note dated 6 March 2014, announced that it was suspending the negotiation of the extradition treaty, having already made a proposal for amendments to the already agreed text of the treaty, to which the Ministry of Justice subsequently prepared a partially disagreeing opinion.

At the end of 2017, the Australian side announced that it was ready to resume negotiations on the treaty and, therefore, the text of the treaty with the incorporated changes from the originally agreed version of the 2010 treaty was discussed and confirmed in writing at expert level during 2018.

On 17 February 2022, the Extradition Treaty between the Czech Republic and Australia was signed in the Australian capital Canberra. The signing of the treaty took place at the Australian Parliament building in Canberra. On behalf of the Czech Republic, the treaty was signed by the Czech Ambassador Tomáš Dub, and on behalf of Australia, the treaty was signed by the Minister of Justice, Senator Michaelia Cash.

The treaty contains the usual provisions of extradition treaties, such as the obligation to extradite, the definition of extraditable offences, grounds for mandatory and optional refusal of extradition, the manner of contact and use of language, the particulars of the required documents and their verification, the provision of additional information, the conditions and particulars of the request for provisional detention, the criteria for dealing with requests from several States, postponement of extradition and temporary surrender, the procedure for the actual surrender of persons after extradition has been authorised, the surrender of property, the principle of speciality, the conditions for further extradition to a third State, the authorisation of transit in connection with extradition from third States, the costs associated with extradition and cooperation with Interpol in the mediation of reports and the implementation of extradition.