eli5, escaping prison in one country and fleeing to another

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I’m watching NatGeo’s show, Locked Up Abroad. There are many stories of people going to prison in foreign countries for drug smuggling or something, then they escape to another country and are somehow free. Once escaping, why isn’t the new country sending them back to jail? And then they’re broadcasting their escape on TV… why can’t the original country they fled from, order them back to prison in their country?
For example, this guy escaped from a Turkish prison and went on Greek territory and was suddenly a free man. (Billy Hayes, the guy they made the Midnight Express movie on)

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Simply put, there are no international laws governing the extradition of alleged criminals. Each nation has its own laws and rules governing such things. Each nation can request that a person be turned over, and each nation can refuse to turn over such people, but there is nothing forcing a government to turn over an alleged criminal to another nation.

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