At the request of the Republic of Azerbaijan Russia handed over an individual accused of receiving “terrorist” training in Iran, TASS and Azerbaijani media reported July 28.
Russian Federation Prosecutor General’s Office announced that Mehdi Shukurov, an Azerbaijani citizen sought by Baku was handed over for criminal prosecution.
The accusation against Mr. Shukurov is that in 2016 he crossed the border into Iran and joined an “illegal armed group” receiving training in the use of firearms and explosives and other terror techniques.
The group in question is not named and it is not clear whether the Iranian government was involved in any way or Shukurov joined an underground group.
After the alleged training the accused traveled to Russia and after Azerbaijan determined he was in Russia asked for his extradition. Russia arrested him earlier this year and finally extradited him to Azerbaijan.
Two years ago, Azerbaijan claimed that a suspect in the assassination of the mayor of Ganja had spent eight months in 2016 in Iran’s religious city of Qom and then traveled to Syria for military training. Yunis Safarov was arrested shortly after the mayor’s murder.
At the time it was reported that Safarov intended to establish an organization called “Unity of Azerbaijan’s Muslims” and agitating for the assassinations of government officials to prepare the ground for an insurrection to set up an Islamic state.