The Armenian Ministry of Justice did not respond to Hetq’s question about what guarantees the ministry received for transferring the two Syrian mercenaries to the Syria to continue serving their life sentences there, Hetq reports.

Syrian mercenaries Yousef Alaabet al-Hajji and Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkheri, who were sentenced to life in prison in Armenia, had petitioned with a request to serve the remainder of their life sentences in a penitentiary in their home country, the Syrian Arab Republic. After that, the Ministry of Justice of Armenia conducted an investigation of the facts and circumstances. As a result, Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan made a decision to grant the transfer of these two convicts.

And on January 14, the Ministry of Justice announced that Yousef Alaabet al-Hajji and Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkheri were transferred to the competent authorities of Syria through Turkey in order to continue in Syria the carrying out of the sentences handed down against them in Armenia. The transfer was carried out in cooperation between the relevant competent authorities and within the framework of applicable legal mechanisms.

The Ministry of Justice of Armenia informed Hetq that the transfer of these convicts was regulated in accordance with Article 80 of the Law On Legal Assistance in Criminal Proceedings, according to which a convict can be transferred on the basis of reciprocity between Armenia and a foreign state.

“Due to the absence of circumstances prohibiting the transfer of convicts, their transfer to the Syrian Arab Republic was carried out,” the Ministry of Justice added.

But there is no mention of guarantees for serving a sentence in the ministry’s response. This is not accidental, since years ago the Hungarian government extradited Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov—who had axed and killed Armenian army officer Gurgen Margaryan in his sleep—to Azerbaijan to continue serving his sentence in Azerbaijan. But once entering the country, Safarov was made a hero and released from serving the rest of his sentence.

It should be recalled that Syrian citizens Yousef Alaabet al-Hajji and Muhrab Muhammad al-Shkheri, accused of mercenary activities and other war crimes, were sentenced to life imprisonment by the verdict of Armenia’s Syunik provincial court of general jurisdiction in May 2021.