YEREVAN. - The statement of the Armenian Justice Ministry on handing over Valery Permyakov—who was sentenced to life for killing the Avetisyan family in Gyumri—to Russia is illiteracy.

Representative of the Avetisyans’ legal successor, attorney Lusine Sahakyan told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am, referring to the statement.

“Since the beginning we stated that the law enforcement authorities of Armenia should have taken effective steps instead of failure to act and detain Permyakov. Since the moment Permyakob was detained by the Russian law enforcement authorities, he could no longer be handed over to Armenia by virtue of relevant interstate treaties and constitutions, which ban their citizen’s extradition. In particular, Russia could not hand its citizen over to Armenia. That is the reason why Permyakov was never handed over to

Armenia and during his entire stay in Armenia was kept in custody in the 102nd military base based on the decision and judicial act of the competent Russian authorities.  That is, he was in the Russian jurisdiction,” Sahakyan said.

In her words, the Armenian court was merely given an opportunity to render a decision. “That is, Permyakov continued to remain in the Russian jurisdiction but the judicial act was issued by the Armenian court. It was then apparent that Permyakov, who hadn’t been handed over to Armenia since the very beginning, would serve his sentence in Russia. We must simply take into consideration the fact that there are two judicial acts: one issued by the Russian court and the other by the Armenian one. As you know, the Russian court sentenced Permyakov to 10 years in prison for committing a crime against military service procedure, while the Armenian court sentenced him to life for the murder of the Avetisyan family. If Russia hadn’t recognized the judicial act of the Armenian court, after being taken to Russia, Permyakov would only serve his sentence of 10 years in prison. In fact, during this time the relevant court of Russia recognized the judgment of the Armenian court and [thus] after being only taken to Russia—not being handed over, extradited there—Permyakov will serve his sentence to life.” the attorney said.

The attorney was seriously concerned by the statement of the Ministry of Justice. “It makes you think seriously. It is unclear how the Justice Ministry could be guided by the Convention “On extraditing convicts for further service of sentence”when Permyakov had not been handed over to Armenia. Even if Permyakov was in the Armenian jurisdiction, being detained by the Armenian police since the beginning, they should have been guided by other conventions—not this one—in order to hand him over to Russia,” Sahakyan said.  

“In this connection, since such a statement was released, we are going to demand the request on handing over the convict together with the documents attached in order to understand what process took place in reality. If they were guided by the mentioned convention—which they couldn’t do—its Article 5 prescribes in which cases a person cannot be extradited. It is particularly mentioned that the convict’s extradition can be denied if the damage caused by the crime hasn’t been compensated. According to Article 8 of the same convention, information on the damage and its compensation shall be submitted along with the request for extradition. Everyone knows that there is a civil claim and that the damage caused as a result of the crime has not been compensated. Even if Permyakov wasn’t a serviceman, was in the Armenian jurisdiction and this convention was to be used, they couldn’t have handed him over,” Sahakyan added.

“The statement of the Ministry of Justice has nothing to do with law, interstate agreements and international norms. If this is a reality and they were guided by the mentioned convention, I consider this as illiteracy,” she concluded.