Azeri officer’s extradition impossible – Armenian lawyer

Arminfo
15 Apr 06

Yerevan, 15 April: The sentence handed down by the Hungarian court on
[Azerbaijani officer] Ramil Safarov is the triumph of justice, lawyer
Nazeli Vardanyan has told our correspondent.

On 13 April the Hungarian court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment
without the right to amnesty for 30 years. Safarov hacked to death his
Armenian counterpart Gurgen Markaryan in Budapest on 19 February
[2004] and tried to kill another Armenian officer Ayk
Makuchyan. Lawyer Vardanyan represented the interests of Markaryan’s
family in the trial.

Commenting on the fuss raised after the sentence in some circles of
Azerbaijani society and the promises that Safarov will be extradited
to Azerbaijan soon, Vardanyan said that extradition at the current
stage is impossible. She pointed out that fine-sounding statements by
Azerbaijani politicians and officials are connected with the fact that
the Azerbaijani side realizes that they failed the case and is doing
its best to keep up morale in society.

Moreover, the current situation is a continuation of the policy of
misinformation chosen by the Azerbaijani side. Throughout the trial,
Azerbaijan deceived its own people for propaganda purposes. For this
purpose, they distorted the words of the prosecutor, saying that he
had allegedly demanded not life imprisonment, but 30 years for
Safarov. They hoped that the verdict would be softer and that they
would get away with lies, Vardanyan said.