Lawyers assess legal risks for Azerbaijani volunteers in Ukraine

In their homeland, the Azerbaijani volunteers who have left for Ukraine may be criminally prosecuted under the article on mercenarism, the lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" have pointed out.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Elnur Elshan oglu Gasanov, 29, was killed on March 27 near Kiev; his body was brought to Azerbaijan and handed over to his family. On April 10, he was buried in the Goranboy District.

The Azerbaijani legislation does not assume any participation of country's citizens in armed conflicts abroad. Therefore, those Azerbaijani citizens who went to Ukraine can be held accountable for this, said Fazil Mustafa, a lawyer and an MP, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights.

Fakhmin Gadjiev, a member of the Azerbaijani Diaspora, living in Kyiv, a former commander of Azerbaijani internal troops, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that, according to his data, there are 300 Azerbaijanis in the Ukrainian army and volunteer detachments.

"Among them, there are both citizens of Ukraine and citizens of Azerbaijan living in this country, as well as individual volunteers who specially arrived here to participate in military operations. But there are no independent Azerbaijani volunteer detachments," Mr Gadjiev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 12, 2022 at 07:34 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.