HUNGARY JAILS AZERBAIJANI KILLER

BBC News, UK
April 13 2006

Safarov was also convicted of trying to kill a second Armenian An
Azerbaijani army officer has been jailed for life for murdering an
Armenian while the two were taking a Nato course in English in Hungary.

Lt Ramil Safarov confessed to hacking Lt Gurgen Markarian to death
with an axe in February 2004 in a dormitory used by Partnership for
Peace trainees.

The Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life in prison, with a 30-year
minimum term before any parole hearings.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been bitter rivals since a war in the
1980s-90s.

Verdict welcomed

Safarov, 29, showed little emotion as Judge Andras Vaskuti read out
the sentence.

He had claimed that he had been driven to his act by the plight
of fellow Azerbaijanis, including close family relatives, in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He also said he had been provoked by what he called the insulting
behaviour of Lt Markarian towards the Azerbaijani flag.

But the judge ruled that the murder was pre-meditated and had been
carried out with extreme cruelty.

Had his fellow officers not restrained him, the judge added, Safarov
would have killed a second Armenian officer as well.

A lawyer representing the victim’s family welcomed the sentence as a
“good decision for the Hungarian court and for [Armenian] society”.

Safarov’s lawyer said he planned to appeal against the verdict.

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