Armenia can’t extradite its citizen to Israel by Constitution, says Justice Minister

YEREVAN, MARCH 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenia cannot extradite its citizen Meri Aghajanyan to Israel, Minister of Justice Artak Zeynalyan told reporters. Aghajanyan is wanted by Israel for fraud.

According to the minister, the Constitution prohibits the extradition of Armenian citizens.

“We are currently carrying out works in direction of mutual recognition of court rulings. If such an opportunity happens, naturally the court ruling must be recognized. At this moment there can’t be any talk about extradition. It is prohibited to extradite Armenian citizens to other countries”, he said.

On March 2, Armenian police arrested Meri Aghajanyan at Zvartnots airport. Aghajanyan is wanted by Israel for aggravated fraud.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the woman once served as office manager for MK and former tourism minister Stas Meseznikov.

Since Armenia and Israel do not have bilateral agreement on extradition, the issue is regulated within the European Convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal cases.

According to Paragraph 2, Article 55, “A citizen of the Republic of Armenia cannot be extradited to a foreign state, with the exception of cases envisaged by international treaties ratified by the Republic of Armenia”.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan