MURDERER OF ARMENIAN OFFICER TO GET SENTENCE ON APR 13, 2006

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
March 8 2006

YEREVAN, March 8. /ARKA/. On April 13, 2006, the Budapest court is to
pass a sentence on the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who killed
the Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, the lawyer Nazeni Vardanyan,
who represents the Armenian side, told the RA Public Television.

She reported that the next court sitting is scheduled for April 4,
2006. Vardanyan pointed out that the Azerbaijani side is trying to
delay the trial by submitting numerous petitions to the court.

Specifically, the Azerbaijani side petitioned for a witness to be
summoned and for another psychiatric examination to be made. The court
rejected both the petitions, the reason being that the Azerbaijani side
might have invited the witness during the whole year of court hearings.

According to the results of the latest psychiatric examination, the
murderer is criminally sane, does not suffer from any serious disease,
including mental diseases, and was not in a state of affect at the
moment of murder.

On February 19, 2006, Lieutenant of the RA Armed Forces Gurgen
Margaryan, which was attending English language courses in Budapest
under the Partnership for Peace program, was brutally killed with an
ax while asleep by the Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov. In Baku,
Ramil Safarov was declared a man of the year.