Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan (In Azeri)
Nov 17 2004

Thousands of Azeris plea with Hungarian court to have “fair” trial

BAKU

An appeal signed by over 100,000 people was sent to the Budapest city
court today. The signatures had been collected by the Committee to
Defend Ramil Safarov’s Rights on an initiative of the Karabakh
Liberation Organization [KLO].

Citing the appeal, the KLO said that the whole Azerbaijani people is
closely following the trial of Ramil Safarov, who is accused of
killing an Armenian officer. The appeal goes on to say that the
insulting and unethical behaviour of the [killed] Armenian officer
had made the Azerbaijani officer, whose family has been subjected to
the Armenian aggression, commit the crime while he was not aware of
his actions.

The appeal calls on to the Hungarian court to consider the case
objectively, conduct the investigation and the trial fairly and not
to allow the Armenian authorities and lobby to interfere in the
affair.

At the end, the appeal said: “Any fair ruling [by the court] could
help improve Azerbaijan’s relations with Hungary and restore trust.”