Civilnet
In a new development for the decade-old Ramil Safarov murder case, the European Court of Human Rights has requested formal responses from the Governments of Hungary and Azerbaijan concerning the pardon and early release of the Azerbaijani officer convicted for murdering Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian.
The European Court of Human Rights’ current call on Hungary and Azerbaijan comes as part of a 2013 lawsuit brought on these governments by the family of the murdered officer Markarian. Both governments are expected to submit their responses to the Strasbourg Court by May 2016. Armenia’s government has also been invited to submit its comments.
Ramil Safarov and Gurgen Markarian were both in Budapest, Hungary attending a NATO-sponsored English-language course when Safarov murdered Markarian with an axe in his sleep on February 19, 2004. Other officers restrained Safarov from murdering a second Armenian attending the course. The attacks on Armenian officers were part of Safarov’s plan to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Not only has Safarov expressed no remorse for his ethnically-motivated hate crime, but he is hailed as a hero in Azerbaijan.
In April 2006, the Budapest City Court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment with the possibility of conditional release after 30 years. He began serving his sentence in February 2007 after this judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal. A few years later in August 2012, however, Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan. Just hours after his transfer, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev granted Safarov a pardon. He was then promoted to major, awarded eight years salary and an apartment.
This led to outrage not only in Armenia but also internationally among non-Armenians, while Hungary’s Ombudsman criticised the Hungarian Government for approving the transfer without Azerbaijan’s assurance that Safarov’s sentence would be upheld.
Interestingly, the transfer came just a week after talks were held regarding a multibillion-dollar loan that would be made from Azerbaijan to Hungary. The Armenian Bar Association condemned Safarov’s extradition as “Justice for Sale.”
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