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Interfax, Russia
Sept 1 2012
Azerbaijan raps "hysterical" protests from Armenia at officer's extradition
BAKU. Sept 1
Friday's extradition to Azerbaijan of an Azeri army officer sentenced
to life imprisonment in Hungary in 2006 for murdering an Armenian was
a completely legitimate move, the Azeri Foreign Ministry argued on
Saturday, dismissing "hysterical" protests from the president of
Armenia.
Senior Lt. Ramil Safarov murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian in
a fit of frenzy for allegedly insulting the Azeri flag during
NATO-organized classes in Budapest in 2004. In April 2006, a Budapest
court gave Safarov a life sentence without the right to appeal for
pardon for the first 30 years of his incarceration.
On Friday, Hungary sent Safarov back to Baku, and the same day Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him. On Saturday, Azeri Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting with Safarov at which he conferred
the rank of major on the officer, handed him keys to a new apartment
and returned him pay for eight and a half years.
"The repatriation of Ramil Safarov is a matter that belongs to
relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, stays within the limits of
law and does not contradict any standards or principles of
international law," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev
told a briefing on Saturday.
"As regards the Armenian side, the hysterical statements of [President
Serzh] Sargzyan, who has his hands up to the elbow in the blood of
civilian residents of the Azeri town of Khojaly, are nothing else than
a show and an act of populism," Abdullayev said.
as
From: A. Papazian
Sept 1 2012
Azerbaijan raps "hysterical" protests from Armenia at officer's extradition
BAKU. Sept 1
Friday's extradition to Azerbaijan of an Azeri army officer sentenced
to life imprisonment in Hungary in 2006 for murdering an Armenian was
a completely legitimate move, the Azeri Foreign Ministry argued on
Saturday, dismissing "hysterical" protests from the president of
Armenia.
Senior Lt. Ramil Safarov murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Markarian in
a fit of frenzy for allegedly insulting the Azeri flag during
NATO-organized classes in Budapest in 2004. In April 2006, a Budapest
court gave Safarov a life sentence without the right to appeal for
pardon for the first 30 years of his incarceration.
On Friday, Hungary sent Safarov back to Baku, and the same day Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him. On Saturday, Azeri Defense
Minister Safar Abiyev had a meeting with Safarov at which he conferred
the rank of major on the officer, handed him keys to a new apartment
and returned him pay for eight and a half years.
"The repatriation of Ramil Safarov is a matter that belongs to
relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary, stays within the limits of
law and does not contradict any standards or principles of
international law," Azeri Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev
told a briefing on Saturday.
"As regards the Armenian side, the hysterical statements of [President
Serzh] Sargzyan, who has his hands up to the elbow in the blood of
civilian residents of the Azeri town of Khojaly, are nothing else than
a show and an act of populism," Abdullayev said.
as
From: A. Papazian