4. Each State Party shall take the necessary measures to prevent and
sanction acts that hinder the conduct of an investigation. It shall ensure in
particular that persons suspected of having committed an offence of enforced
disappearance are not in a position to influence the progress of an
investigation by means of pressure or acts of intimidation or reprisal aimed at
the complainant, witnesses, relatives of the disappeared person or their
defence counsel, or at persons participating in the investigation.
Article 13
1. For the purposes of extradition between States Parties, the offence of
enforced disappearance shall not be regarded as a political offence or as an
offence connected with a political offence or as an offence inspired by political
motives. Accordingly, a request for extradition based on such an offence may
not be refused on these grounds alone.
2. The offence of enforced disappearance shall be deemed to be
included as an extraditable offence in any extradition treaty existing between
States Parties before the entry into force of this Convention.
3. States Parties undertake to include the offence of enforced
disappearance as an extraditable offence in any extradition treaty subsequently
to be concluded between them.
4. If a State Party which makes extradition conditional on the existence
of a treaty receives a request for extradition from another State Party with
which it has no extradition treaty, it may consider this Convention as the
necessary legal basis for extradition in respect of the offence of enforced
disappearance.
5. States Parties which do not make extradition conditional on the
existence of a treaty shall recognize the offence of enforced disappearance as
an extraditable offence between themselves.
6. Extradition shall, in all cases, be subject to the conditions provided
for by the law of the requested State Party or by applicable extradition treaties,
including, in particular, conditions relating to the minimum penalty requirement
for extradition and the grounds upon which the requested State Party may
refuse extradition or make it subject to certain conditions.
7. Nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as imposing an
obligation to extradite if the requested State Party has substantial grounds for
believing that the request has been made for the purpose of prosecuting or
punishing a person on account of that person’s sex, race, religion, nationality,
ethnic origin, political opinions or membership of a particular social group, or
that compliance with the request would cause harm to that person for any one
of these reasons.
Article 14
1. States Parties shall afford one another the greatest measure of
mutual legal assistance in connection with criminal proceedings brought in
respect of an offence of enforced disappearance, including the supply of all
evidence at their disposal that is necessary for the proceedings.
2. Such mutual legal assistance shall be subject to the conditions
provided for by the domestic law of the requested State Party or by applicable
treaties on mutual legal assistance, including, in particular, the conditions in
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