Kazinform, Kazakhstan
April 14 2006

Hungary jails Azerbaijani killer of an Armenian

BUDAPEST. April 14, 2006. KAZINFORM – 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.
Safarov was also convicted of trying to kill a second Armenian;
KAZINFORM cites BBC News.

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.