HUNGARIAN COURT TO ISSUE VERDICT APRIL 13 ON AZERBAIJANI CHARGED WITH KILLING ARMENIAN
Palma Benczenleitner

AP Worldstream
Apr 04, 2006

A verdict will be issued April 13 in the case of an Azerbaijani officer
accused of murdering an Armenian classmate at a NATO training course
in Hungary, a court said Tuesday.

Lt. Ramil Safarov of Azerbaijan has confessed to using an ax in
February 2004 to hack Lt. Gurgen Markarian of Armenia to death,
authorities said, in a dormitory that was being used by participants
of a NATO Partnership for Peace English language course in Budapest.

At the time, police said the murder was committed with “unusual
cruelty” and that Safarov had tried, unsuccessfully, to enter the
room of another Armenian with the intention of killing him.

Police said that Safarov confessed to the killing, claiming that the
long-standing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia was at the root
of his act.

The two neighboring, former Soviet republics remain at odds over
the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within
Azerbaijan.

At Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors asked that Safarov be sentenced to
life in prison, with a 30-year minimum before any parole hearings.

The Budapest City Court rejected a defense request for a new expert
opinion to determine Safarov’s mental health. Four earlier examinations
already declared him mentally stable and accountable for his actions.

“(Safarov’s) actions were not guided by hatred, but by the trauma
which remains,” said his lawyer Gyorgy Magyar, referring to the feud
between the two countries.

The court said Safarov would make his final statement on April 13,
the day of his sentencing.

Armenian-backed forces drove Azerbaijan’s army out of the ethnic
Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s.

A 1994 cease-fire ended the six-year war that killed 30,000 people
and left about 1 million homeless and the enclave is now under the
control of ethnic Armenians.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress