Russia allowed an Azerbaijani man accused by Armenia of beheading a Nagorno-Karabakh civilian during the 2020 war to return to Azerbaijan on Thursday one day after briefly detaining him at a Moscow airport.
The man, Kamil Zeynalli, was apprehended at the Domodedovo international airport on an Armenian arrest warrant and freed a few hours later. A Russian court was reportedly due to start on Thursday hearings on his possible extradition to Armenia.
Russian authorities did not immediately explain why Zeynalli was allowed to fly back to Baku. Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, was reported to say that his mission held “intensive negotiations” with the authorities and managed to convince them that the accusations brought against him are baseless.
A spokesman for the Armenian Interior Ministry, Narek Sargsian, said that shortly after Zeynalli’s detention it was contacted by Moscow and confirmed that the Azerbaijani national known as a fitness coach is wanted for the war crime allegedly committed by him. Sargsian again gave no details of the accusation which stems from the beheading of an elderly resident of Karabakh’s southern Hadrut district captured by Azerbaijani forces during the six-week war.
Sargsian also told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his ministry has put together a “package of documents” required for the suspect’s potential extradition and will send them to Russian law-enforcement authorities. Ara Ghazarian, an Armenian expert on international law, dismissed the move as overdue and useless.
“If that person is not in Russia, Russia can no longer initiate an extradition process,” argued Ghazarian. “It is Azerbaijan that must initiate it, but Azerbaijan, of course, will not do that.”
He said Moscow’s decision to let the suspect return home is politically motivated and reflects mounting tensions in Russian-Armenian relations.