Azeri officer on trial in Hungary changes testimony

ANS TV, Baku
23 Nov 04

[Presenter] The trial in the case of Ramil Safarov, an officer of
the Azerbaijani armed forces, who is charged with killing Armenian
officer Gurgen Markaryan [on a NATO course] in Hungary on 19 February
[2004], opened in the Budapest city court today. The case is being
examined under the chairmanship of judge (?Vorkushe Anrash). It
has been reported that [Azerbaijani] lawyer Adil Ismayilov and his
Hungarian counterpart Peter Zalay jointly defend Safarov.

We are now over to Budapest. The ANS correspondent in Hungary, Parviz
Sultanov, who is on the line [from Budapest], will give us the latest
details. Hello, Parviz. Here you are.

[Correspondent, by phone] Hello, Leyla. The trial in the case of Ramil
Safarov is under way at the moment. During the trial, Safarov was asked
if he wanted to change his former testimony. Safarov said that because
of his language problems the previous testimony had not given true
facts and that he wanted to change his testimony. He made very fresh
revelations. The court took this into account. Then the Hungarian judge
read Safarov’s previous testimony and pointed to differences there.

Let us recall that Safarov’s main compliant was that he did not know
Russian well and spoke broken English. He formerly testified in these
languages. He read his new testimony today and asked the court to
take into account the facts presented there.

The trial is currently under way. It is not expected to be
postponed. That’s it.

[Presenter] Thanks, Parviz.