Zeinalov declares against extradition to countries with death penalty

In his interview with the Caucasian Knot correspondent, well-known Azerbaijan human rights activist Eldar Zeinalov told about his visit to Warsaw, where he took part in the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. He presented a report on human rights in Azerbaijan and the CIS Countries during the conference, he said. Special attention in the report was paid to the problem of extradition to the countries with death penalty, he added.

"Some of OSCE member states, which are also members of the Council of Europe, have ratified Protocol No 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention on Extradition. Thus they have undertaken the obligation to do more than not put death but not extradite people to the countries with death penalty. Nevertheless, there are ways of by-passing these conventions in the form of bilateral agreements between CIS Countries and extraordinary antiterrorist measures. For instance, Azerbaijan extradites people accused of political crimes and terrorism to Arabian and Central Asian countries. Over 30 terrorist suspects were extradited last year. According to the Memorial Society, some 10 citizens of Uzbekistan extradited from the CIS Countries have been sentenced to death later on," Mr Zeinalov said.