AZERIS WAGING PROPAGANDA WAR IN BUDAPEST

Azg/arm
18 Feb 05

Nazeli Vardanian, representative and lawyer of Gurgen Margarian in
Budapest, and Hayk Demoyan, representative of RA Defense Ministry,
historian, organized a press conference at the Press Hall of RA Public
Radio, on February 16. Hayk Demoyan began his speech by touching upon
the disinformation spread by the Armenian Mass Media. They were told
in Budapest that Haylour program of RA Public TV informed that Gurgen
Margarianâ~@~Ys parents were going to participate in the February 8
court hearing and that wasnâ~@~Yt true. While Aravot newspaper wrote
that Safarov, the murderer, is likely to be sentenced to 10-12 years
of imprisonment, while it was stated for many times that he may be
sentenced to life imprisonment.

Nazeli Vardanian reminded that the February 8 court hearing was
delayed because the Azeri side wanted to invite to the court as
witnesses the Azeri officer and the Lithuanian officer that lived
in the same room with Hayk Mukuchian. But none of them came to the
court. According to the message sent by the Azeri defense minister,
the first witness got his head injured and should undergo a treatment
in Turkey. He will participate in the May 10 court hearing.

The Lithuanian officer will be present at the September 27 court
hearing, as the message sent to him was sent back, being written in
Hungarian. According to the court, some 5 months will be needed for
officially ratifying the translation into Lithuanian.

The Lawyer said that they secured the presence of a translator for
the murderer from the beginning of the trial, as Safarov, who spoke
Russian during the exam, said that he doesnâ~@~Yt speak Russian
in the course of the first court hearing of the trial, demanding
translation in Turkish. While, in the course of this hearing he
stated that he didnâ~@~Yt understand the translator of Turkish and
demanded a translator of Azerbaijani. In some minutes he stated that
he doesnâ~@~Yt understand Azerbaijani as the translator translates
badly. After hesitating over choosing one of the two translators,
the court hearing continued in Turkish.

After settling the issues concerning the translation of the documents,
the court listened to the speech of the court psychologist and
psychiatrist. They said that, according to the examination that
lasted four days, Safarov is sane and physically healthy and he
was quite conscious of his actions when he hit the Armenian officer
with an ax. In the course of the first interrogation he said that
he will murder another Armenian in 100 years, too. In one word,
Safarov gave a militant answer to all the questions. Thus, the Azeris
failed to represent him as irresponsible of the murder. They hired
a well-known lawyer for Safarov for an hour and he requested for
inviting a psychologist from Azerbaijan. The request of the lawyer was
immediately declined. By the court decision, the double court-medical
investigation will be carried out by the Hungarian specialist only. The
results of the investigation will be represented in the course of
the May 10 court hearing. If some contradiction appears in one of
two court-medical investigation, the results of the investigations
will be reconsidered by the supreme medical committee.

Nazeli Vardanian explained the attempts of the Azeri side to delay
the trial with the fact that Safarov was accused by the second part
of article #166. The first part of the article envisages 10-15 years
of imprisonment, while the second part of the article envisages 10-15
years of imprisonment or life imprisonment. Thus, the Azeris try to
replace the second part of the article with the first one and spare
no efforts to represent Safarov as an insane

Hayk Demoyan added that Azerbaijan opened an embassy in Budapest that
has no Armenian community and began “bombing” the court with political
materials only. He said that the Azeris failed in the case of Safarov,
as the Hungarians are not interested in political issues. They are
surprised at the fact that a murderer becomes a national hero and
receives a pension.

By Ruzan Poghosian

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