CAT/C/38/D/281/2005** Page 7 Convention must be recognised by all other parties to the Convention. The State party assumes that the Baku UNHCR Office referred to letter (f) of the Conclusion No 12 of the UNCHR’s Executive Committee “On the extraterritorial effect of the determination of refugee status” §§. However, this conclusion is of recommendatory nature only. The State party invokes another non binding conclusion of the UNHCR Executive Committee - No 8 On the Determination of Refugee Status, according to whose (f), “the acceptance by a Contracting State of refugee status as determined by other States parties to these instruments would be generally desirable”. However, letter (g) of the Conclusion No 12 provides that “refugee status as determined in one Contracting State should only be called into question by another Contracting State in exceptional cases, when it appears that the person manifestly does not fulfil the requirements of the Convention”. According to the State party, if there were serious grounds such as “participation in the activities of illegal structures”, and information from the Azeri security services that the complainant was an active member of the PKK, the competent State party authorities were right to question the complainant’s refugee status. 7.6 According to the State party, Ms. Pelit’s case does not fall under the scope of article 1 F(b) of the Refugee Convention, given that she committed a serious crime of non-political character outside of the country which granted her asylum, prior to her arrival in the asylum country. In addition, pursuant to letter (g) of UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion No 17***, “protection in regard to extradition applies to persons who fulfil the criteria of the refugee definition and who are not excluded from refugee status by virtue of Article 1(F) b”. 7.7 According to the State party, the Azeri courts had no reason to consider that the crime for which the complainant’s extradition was requested was of political nature or was related to a political crime, which is needed in order to refuse an extradition request pursuant the European Convention on Extradition. The Courts noted that Ms. Pelit had been arrested in Turkey on two past occasions, as a suspected member of a terrorist organisation, but had been released because of lack of evidence. This, according to the State party, demonstrates the impartiality of the Turkish courts in her case. The Azeri courts also considered whether the crimes imputed to the complainant constituted crimes under Azeri law (e.g. articles 278 and 279 of the Criminal Code). 7.8 The State party invokes UN Security Council Resolution 1373 of 28 September 2001, which prohibits the granting of asylum to individuals who finance, plan, support, or perform terrorist acts. The State party recalls the Committee’s own statement of 22 November 2001, when the Committee expressed its confidence that whatever responses to the threat of international terrorism are adopted by State parties, such responses will be in conformity with their obligations under the Convention against Torture. 7.9 The State party recalls that letter (f) of UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusion No.17, stresses that “nothing in the present conclusions should be considered as affecting the §§ “The Executive Committee: … (f) Considered that the very purpose of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol implies that refugee status determined by one Contracting State will be recognized also by the other Contracting States”. *** Conclusion No 17, Problems of extradition affecting refugees.