Armenia under no legal obligations to hand Permyakov over to Russia
Armenia’s authorities are under no legal obligations to extradite Valery Permyakov, the serviceman at Russia’s military base in Armenia who was yesterday sentences to life imprisonment for murdering a family of seven in Gyumri, to Russia, Ruslan Zakalyuzhny, a lawyer, told RIA Novosti.
“There is an agreement between Russia and Armenia dated from 1995 on presence of a Russian military base in Armenia and another agreement on legal ground for mutual assistance on cases related to the presence of the Russian military base in Armenia’s territory,” the lawyer told the agency. “It is specified in the agreement that Armenia’s law is applied to cases on crimes and other offences committed by the Russian military base’s persons in Armenia’s territory. Sentences are executed in accordance with the Armenian law as well. It means that Armenia is not obliged to extradite Permyakov to Russia.”
Zakalyuzhny also said that in 1994 Armenia ratified the Convention on Legal Aid and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Cases, which allows rejecting extradition request, if the crime has been committed in the territory of the requested party.
“This means that the Armenian authorities have a right, not obligation to hand Permyakov over to Russia,” he added noting that there is probability of extradition but founding it difficult to say how likely it is.
The family - a middle-aged couple, their daughter, son, daughter-in-law and 2-year-old granddaughter was found shot dead in their Gyumri home in 2015 January morning. The Avetisyan family’s seventh member, a 6-month-old baby boy, died of his stab wounds a week later.
Valery Permyakov was arrested when trying to cross the Armenian border and later charged with the murder of two or more persons under the Armenian Criminal Code. On August 12, 2015 Permyakov was found guilty of desertion, theft of weapons and sentenced to 10 years in prison. The murder case was singled out for considering it in a separate procedure and passed to the Armenian authorities.
On October 13, Permyakov was found sane. According to experts, he was not in the heat of passion while committing the crime. He also could recognize the consequences of his actions.
On October 16, Permyakov was additionally charged with armed assault, home-invasion robbery and attempted border crossing. He pleaded guilty to killing seven members of the family. --0---