Lawyers assess chances of Dubakov's extradition from Azerbaijan

Eduard Dubakov, a Russian sentenced by a court in Baku to 10 years in prison, has asked about his chances to lodge an appeal, his advocate said. Russia and Azerbaijan have an extradition agreement, which allows extraditing a convict to his homeland; Dubakov can also ask the President of Azerbaijan for a pardon, lawyers have noted.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 22, a court in Baku sentenced Dubakov to 10 years in a high security colony, finding him to be a participant in battles against Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh; in his last plea, he refused to plead guilty.

Eduard Dubakov intends to file an appeal, he "asked how to do this," Ainur Abdullaeva, his appointed advocate, has explained.

She refused assessing the verdict, but noted that the defence had asked to take into account the nature of Dubakov's activities in Karabakh as a mitigating circumstance: although he was involved in military exercises, he did not take part in hostilities.

Apart from his right to appeal against the verdict at appellate and cassation instances, Dubakov has the right to ask Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev to pardon him; however, this is only possible after the verdict has entered into legal force, said Rasul Djafarov, the head of the Baku Human Rights Club.

According to his version, Dubakov could theoretically be extradited to Russia to serve his sentence there, since there is an extradition agreement between the two countries. However, Dubakov can be extradited to Russia no earlier than six months after the verdict comes into legal force, Mr Djafarov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 23, 2021 at 09:27 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.