It Is Crucial to Understand What Basis Led the Russian Side to Release the Azerbaijani Citizen: Siranush Sahakyan

On February 21, it was reported that the Russian police had detained Azerbaijani citizen Kamil Zeynaliev at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, following an international warrant issued by Armenia. Hours later, the Russian side released the Azerbaijani terrorist at the request of Azerbaijan.

Human rights defender Siranush Sahakyan, who represents Armenian prisoners of war at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), discussed the matter in an interview with 'Hraparak'. She stated: 'The criminal's name is known. I represent the interests of the victim, together with some of my colleagues. There are forms of cooperation in international criminal law, and a wanted criminal can have an arrest warrant issued, leading to the detention of the individuals. Such a convention operates within the framework of the CIS. The elderly individual was not armed and was under the physical control of a serviceman; moreover, the details of the decapitation reveal a hate crime, and ritual murders committed on racial grounds cannot be classified as political matters. We can assume that if they did not wait for the maximum period for the requests to be submitted, then they initially discovered an excluding circumstance due to the political conflict. In any case, official sources should provide clarifications on these issues. It is very important to genuinely understand what basis led the Russian side to release the Azerbaijani citizen. There could have been other outcomes; they could have refused to hand over the individual to Armenia but decided to examine the case in the Russian Federation. In some cases of crimes, a refusal of the request may be justified, but this creates certain obligations for the state to investigate the cases, and within the framework of mutual assistance, the materials of criminal cases may be transferred to another country.'