ASTANA -- Beijing has handed over to Kazakhstan four Kazakh citizens who were convicted in China on charges of drug trafficking and murder.
Kazakhstan's Prosecutor-General told RFE/RL on March 4 that the Kazakh citizens will serve their prison terms in Kazakhstan.
The convicts' identities and prison terms were not provided.
The office representatives said though that 22-year-old Kazakh woman Aqzharqyn Turlybaeva, who was arrested in China in March 2014 and sentenced to life in prison for illegal drug trafficking, was not among the convicts handed over to Astana.
A Kazakh-Chinese agreement on exchanging citizens sentenced to prison terms was signed in 2011 and ratified by Kazakhstan in November 2013 and by China in July 2015.
Since January 2015, Chinese authorities have executed a Tajik citizen Hasan Yusufov and Kyrgyz national Svetlana Kulbaeva, who had been convicted of drug trafficking.