Extradition Lawyer in Baku: Baku Court of Appeal and the Local Procedure

Which Baku institution has the file?

Article 6.2 of Azerbaijan's Law on Extradition of Persons Who Have Committed Crimes directs the papers, after arrest, to the court for grave crimes in the territory where the person is located. Article 8.1 gives that court responsibility for a reasoned extradition decision. The official unified courts portal expressly confirms the extradition function of the Baku Court of Grave Crimes. The appellate court is not the first-instance extradition tribunal merely because its name appears in the title of this page.

There are twelve Baku city district courts listed within the Baku appellate territorial circuit, alongside the Baku Court of Grave Crimes. This matters because a complaint about an initial investigative or custody act may belong to the court named in that custody order, whereas the extradition decision itself goes to the grave-crimes court. A relative should ask counsel to obtain both documents rather than treating one notice as proof that the entire process has ended.

After an arrest at Heydar Aliyev Airport: identify the legal route

Heydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD) is in Bina settlement, Khazar district of Baku, approximately 20 kilometres east of the centre. The airport identifies inbound immigration counters at Terminal 1, second level, and Terminal 2 North, first level. These details help relatives establish where the last contact occurred; they do not identify the detention facility or dictate that the extradition hearing takes place inside the airport district.

If the arrest follows an international alert, request the written grounds, the exact time at which liberty was first restricted, the authority ordering custody and the foreign state involved. A Red Notice or other INTERPOL communication can trigger checks, but it is not itself a Baku court order authorising extradition. Distinguish a request for provisional arrest from a complete extradition request and distinguish both from an immigration refusal or removal procedure; extradition and deportation have different records and remedies.

First 48 hours: the arrest record and judicial control

Article 497.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as amended in 2015, addresses release if a person detained for extradition is not placed under a lawful custody measure within 48 hours from detention, subject to the actual provision and case circumstances. The clock concerns detention, not completion of the extradition hearing. Article 495.1 provides that a court exercising judicial control may order custody on the application of the criminal-prosecution body and the submission of a prosecutor authorised by the Prosecutor General. Counsel should check whether that process actually occurred.

This is a custody timeline, not a promise that an extradition hearing must occur within 48 hours. Under Criminal Procedure Code articles 495.5–495.6, complaints concerning prosecution acts and complaints against extradition custody follow different procedural provisions (articles 449–451 and 452–453 respectively). The appropriate local court and appellate route must be determined from the particular act challenged. Neither route is a substitute for the merits hearing before the Baku Court of Grave Crimes.

There is a further Baku routing question. Article 442.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code, recalled by Azerbaijan's Constitutional Court on 17 April 2026, connects judicial control to the competent first-instance court for the place where the investigative or coercive act occurred. The official court list includes Khazar District Court, and Heydar Aliyev Airport is in Khazar district. Khazar District Court is therefore worth checking if the relevant judicial-control act actually occurred there; landing at the airport alone does not prove that it did. In the same 2026 ruling, the Constitutional Court held that the court's 24-hour period for considering an ordinary suspect's custody application is not an extra 24 hours added to the ordinary 48-hour detention period. That ruling interpreted Articles 148.6 and 447.2 in a domestic suspect case, not an extradition file under Article 497.1. Counsel must examine the current extradition provision and the actual custody papers before relying on that distinction.

Why 18 days, 30 days and seven days are not interchangeable

Article 7.4 of the Extradition Law concerns provisional arrest before receipt of the full request. In the domestic-law scenario it describes, if the requesting state does not provide the formal request or required papers within 18 days after it receives official notice of the arrest, release is required; where justified, extension upon its request is capped at 30 days from that same notice. Article 7.5 makes clear that release does not prevent a fresh lawful arrest after the request arrives. This is not an unconditional maximum duration of every extradition detention.

Article 5.3 separately provides for the competent authority to check received extradition papers within seven days of receipt and seek missing documents; the responding foreign authority ordinarily has one month, potentially extended by another month. Criminal Procedure Code article 495.8 also links extradition detention and extensions to the domestic detention provisions, subject to applicable treaties and the term of the attached arrest order. A lawyer therefore needs three distinct dates: detention, official foreign notification, and receipt of the full request. The Azerbaijan country guide addresses the wider procedure and treaty-specific variations.

Access to a lawyer, interpreter and consulate in Baku

Article 9.1 of the Extradition Law recognises prompt contact and a meeting with the representative of the person's state of nationality. The law also protects defence rights. Ask the authorities to record any request for an interpreter and lawyer; a person who does not understand Azerbaijani should not be expected to make procedural decisions on the basis of an untranslated oral summary. Under Azerbaijan's declaration to the European Convention on Extradition, documents sent with a Convention extradition request require translation into Azerbaijani. That is a rule for official request documents, not a reason to deny the detainee language assistance.

The official Prosecutor General's International Legal Cooperation Department is located in Baku and specifically lists coordination of extradition requests among its functions. The Baku city Prosecution Office is a separate locally listed office. Ask which office is actually managing the case and for a reference number before sending sensitive papers. Neither a ministry address nor the court's published address establishes where this particular person is detained. Counsel should obtain the current facility and its visitation rules from the custody authority before relatives travel.

Which court can review which decision?

An extradition decision made by the Baku Court of Grave Crimes can be challenged under Article 8.2 of the Extradition Law; the Baku Court of Appeal is the higher court for that first-instance court. The Criminal Procedure Code also describes the Supreme Court as a cassation court for eligible appellate decisions, but cassation is not an automatic second merits hearing. The particular filing route, deadline, starting event and whether a challenge suspends transfer must be verified against the served decision and the current procedural provisions. Do not borrow the deadline for an ordinary criminal conviction or assume that a custody complaint automatically suspends extradition.

In Garayev v. Azerbaijan (ECtHR, application 53688/08, 10 June 2010), the European Court of Human Rights found violations concerning an extradition detainee's custody and lack of effective review, as well as the prospective risk of ill-treatment on return to Uzbekistan. That judgment concerned events under an earlier legal framework. Subsequent Azerbaijani amendments, particularly in 2015, introduced specific custody-review and time-limit provisions; it would be inaccurate to claim that the same statutory gap necessarily persists today. An advocate must assess the present remedy before the competent Azerbaijani court, not rely on the historical judgment as a free-standing release order. The grounds and appeal strategy belong in the separate remedies guide.

What a relative or foreign lawyer should send first

• Full name as in the passport, nationality or nationalities, date of birth and a secure contact for the family.
• Airport terminal or last known street location, arrest time, last communication, and the authority named on any police record.
• Photographs or copies of the detention protocol, custody order, hearing notice and extradition papers, with dates of actual service.
• Any foreign warrant or judgment, the requesting state and case number; distinguish an accusation from a final conviction.
• Written proof of medical needs, interpreter requirements, diplomatic contact requests, and the location of original documents.
• A clear question for local counsel: which court holds the custody issue, which court will determine extradition, and what is the earliest applicable deadline?

Hypothetical example: a Georgian visitor is stopped on arrival at Terminal 1 after an alert originating from another state. His sister knows only that officers mentioned an international search. Before assuming he will appear before the Baku Court of Appeal, counsel first obtains the actual custody order and asks whether a formal request has reached the competent authority. If the case proceeds to a local extradition decision, the file belongs to the territorially competent court for grave crimes; an appeal against that decision follows a distinct route. The sister's immediate useful task is to preserve the documents and the exact arrest time, not to guess a surrender date.

Azerbaijan is party to the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, in force for it since 26 September 2002; its declarations include an Azerbaijani-translation requirement and a nationality reservation. The fourth additional protocol entered into force for Azerbaijan on 1 May 2023 with reservations. Those instruments may change the answer for a particular requesting country, and Azerbaijan is not in the EU European Arrest Warrant system. A domestic law deadline should not be applied before identifying the treaty. This page describes the Baku route rather than attempting to reproduce every refusal ground.

For coordinated cross-border defence with independent local counsel, the site's team can review documents through the contact request. This information is not individual legal advice.