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Azerbaijan's President Defends Killer's Pardon

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  • Azerbaijan's President Defends Killer's Pardon

    AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT DEFENDS KILLER'S PARDON

    Sarasota Herald-Tribune
    http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120907/API/1209070694
    Sept 7 2012
    FL

    The Associated Press

    BAKU, Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan's president on Friday vehemently defended
    his pardon of a military officer who murdered an Armenian officer
    with an ax, a decision that has drawn strong international criticism.

    Last week's pardon of Ramil Safarov has aggravated tensions between
    the two countries and raised concerns about resumption of fighting
    over a separatist region of Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian
    control since 1994.

    Safarov killed the Armenian in 2004 while both were in Hungary on
    a NATO language course. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but
    Hungary repatriated him, saying Azerbaijan promised that he would
    serve out his sentence at home.

    But Safarov was pardoned immediately by Azerbaijani President Ilham
    Aliev upon his arrival in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku. He was even
    promoted from lieutenant to major and given back wages for the years
    he spent in Hungarian custody.

    Aliev told a news conference Friday the pardon was allowed by the
    constitution and that "the decision to pardon him is correct from
    the legal viewpoint and is well-founded."

    The U.N.'s top human rights official, meanwhile, strongly criticized
    the pardon for Safarov.

    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's spokesman, Rupert
    Colville, told reporters Friday in Geneva that "ethnically motivated
    hate crimes of this gravity should be deplored and properly punished."

    He added the U.N. hopes this won't harm efforts to end the dispute
    between ex-Soviet neighbors Azerbaijan and Armenia over the
    Nagorno-Karabakh territory.

    Aliev's pardon of Safarov has angered Armenia and raised concerns
    about a possible resumption of hostilities.

    The Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and some adjacent territory
    has been under the control of Armenian troops and local ethnic Armenian
    forces since a 1994 cease-fire. That agreement ended a six-year war
    that killed an estimated 30,000 people and drove about 1 million from
    their homes.

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