Montenegro Ponders Ukrainian Far-Right Group Member’s Asylum Request

Supporters of the 'Right Sector' carry portraits of their comrades killed fighting in eastern Ukraine. Photo: EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

Since December, he has been held in a migrant shelter near the capital, Podgorica, until Montenegro's Interior Ministry decides on his request; he is on a Russian-issued international arrest warrant for allegedly smuggling strategically important resources.

His lawyer, Ibrahim Smailovic, on Wednesday pressed the ministry to address his client's request for asylum before taking any decision to extradite him to Russia.

"We expect the authorities to decide on the political asylum request, as Babayev is a victim of political persecution by Russia. Also, his health is deteriorating, so we have urged the Interior ministry to let him wait for the decision in a rented apartment in Budva instead of a migrant shelter," Smailovic told BIRN.

On January 26 last year, Babayev was arrested in Podgorica on a Russian-issued international arrest warrant and held for six months in the prison of Spuz.

On September 23 that year, the Ministry of Justice decided to extradite him to Russia. But on December 12, he applied to the Interior Ministry for asylum. Under Montenegrin law, he may not be extradited until a decision on his asylum request is made.

The Russian international arrest warrant from 2019 charges Babayev with smuggling strategically important resources during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2014.

According to the Russian warrant, an investigation into Babayev was launched in December 2016, but he then fled to Ukraine and gained Ukrainian citizenship in April 2017.

In his request for asylum, Babayev confirmed he was a member of "Right Sector", which Russia cosiders an illegal terrorist...

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