Gyumri Murder Case: "Russia Does Not Respect The Territorial Integri

GYUMRI MURDER CASE: “RUSSIA DOES NOT RESPECT THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY OF ARMENIA”

03.05.2015 13:22 epress.am

The Russian Federation does not respect the stipulations of the
Armenian-Russian interstate agreements or the territorial integrity
of Armenia, said a statement by the Union of Informed Citizens NGO,
referring to the Russian General Prosecutor’sresponse to MP Zaruhi
Postanjyan’s letter. The response stated that Russian soldier Valery
Permyaov, accused of the murder of the 7 members of the Avetisyan
family in Gyumri, could not be handed over to Armenian law enforcement
due to Article 61 of the Russian Constitution and Article 57 of
the Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil,
Family and Criminal Matters, because he is a citizen of the Russian
Federation. Currently, Valery Permyakov is being kept at the 102-nd
Russian military base in Gyumri.

The Union of Informed Citizens notes that the first part of Article
61 of the Russian Constitution states that a Russian citizen can not
be subject to extradition or be handed over to another state when on
Russian territory.

“The 1995 agreement on “Russian Military Base on the territory of
the Republic of Armenia” and its other successive agreements clearly
imply that the 102nd military base is located on the territory of the
Republic of Armenia and nowhere in those agreements does it ever note
that the military base’s location belongs to the Russian Federation.

Thus, murder suspect Valery Permyakov is not on Russian but on Armenian
territory; therefore, the Russian Constitution’s limitation does not
apply here.

In addition, the statement made by the Russian side implies that Valery
Permyakov is currently in Russia. Which means that, according to the
Russian General Prosecutor, the 102nd military base is the territory
of the Russian Federation,” stresses the statement.

The authors note that the 102nd military base is the territory of
the Republic of Armenia, where the Russian Constitution does not have
authority. Furthermore, none of the agreements put the condition of the
Armenian Constitution’s authority over the military base into question.

“The main regulations of the military base’s activities are given by
approximately 10 Armenian-Russian interstate agreements, which are
superior to the Armenian legislation. Hence, Armenian laws work on
the Russian military base partially, however no one has revoked the
power of the Armenian Constitution on that territory.

Moreover, since the Constitution of Armenia has supreme legal force
in Armenia, in no way can the range of its power be reduced or be
revoked ‘in certain cases’,” says the statement by the Union of
Informed Citizens.

The Russian 102nd military base soldier Valery Permyakov is charged
by Armenia’s Investigative Committee for murdering 7 members of the
Avetisyan family in Gyumri and was arrested on January 13th near the
Armenian-Turkish border and was handed over to the Russian military
base by Russian border guards. The latter stimulated a protest of
thousands of people in Gyumri demanding his transfer to Armenian
law enforcement.

http://www.epress.am/en/2015/03/05/gyumri-murder-case-%E2%80%9Crussia-does-not-respect-the-territorial-integrity-of-armenia%E2%80%9D.html