ARMENIANS WELCOME HUNGARIAN COURT’S RULING
Armenpress
Apr 14 2006
YEREVAN, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS: Armenian political parties have welcomed
today the ruling of an Hungarian court that sentenced Ramil Safarov, an
Azerbaijani army lieutenant to life imprisonment for killing Armenian
Lieutenant Gurgen Margarian, 26, in “premeditated, malicious and an
unusually cruel” way.
Gurgen Margarian was killed in February 2004 while he slept in a
dormitory used by participants in a NATO Partnership for Peace English
language course. The Hungarian court ruled that he will be eligible for
parole in 30 years. Levon Mkrtchian from the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (ARF) said the court’s verdict ‘is of political and moral
significance’ for the Armenian side.
Alexan Karapetian from the opposition National Unity party said
Armenians hope that the murderer will serve his full term in an
Hungarian prison and will not be extradited to Azerbaijan where
he was declared the Man of the Year. Judge Andras Vaskuti of the
Budapest district court ruled that “Compassion and remorse were
completely missing from (Safarov’s) testimony,” Judge Vaskuti said
upon announcing the verdict. “During the whole case we waited for
him to be at least a bit sorry for the Armenian soldier he killed
brutally and for (Margarian’s) family.”
Safarov’s lawyer, Gyorgy Magyar, said they would immediately appeal
the verdict, adding that it was yet unclear whether his client would
serve his sentence in Hungary or be extradited to Azerbaijan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
