U.S.-IRELAND AGREEMENTS ON EXTRADITION/MUTUAL

UNCLAS DUBLIN 000889 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL CJAN KCRM PTER SUBJECT: U.S.-IRELAND AGREEMENTS ON EXTRADITION/MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE SIGNED In a July 14 public ceremony attended by the press, the Ambassador and Irish Minister of Justice, Equality, and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, signed U.S.-Irish agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance. Police Commissioner Noel Conroy, Attorney General Rory Brady, and Justice Department Secretary General Sean Aylward also attended the signing ceremony. The instruments are part of a sequence of bilateral agreements that the United States is pursuing with all EU Member States, in order to implement twin U.S.-EU agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance signed in 2003. The new U.S.-Irish agreements update and supplement a 1983 bilateral extradition treaty and a 2001 bilateral mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT, for which the Irish ratification process has not been completed). Press reports on the signing were positive, noting that the agreements would facilitate cooperation between U.S. and Irish law enforcement authorities in combatting crime and, in particular, terrorism. KENNY