SAFAROV TO SERVE HIS SENTENCE IN HUNGARY AND LEAVE

Lragir.am
18 April 06

The investigation and trial of the case involving Azerbaijani Ramil
Safarov who had hacked to death the Armenian army officer Gurgen
Margaryan in Budapest in January 2004 lasted for two years. The
verdict was passed April 13, 2006. Ramil Safarov was sentenced to
life imprisonment, 30 years without the right for pardon.

On April 18 Nazeli Vardanyan, Gurgen Margaryan’s attorney, announced
in Yerevan that till the last day of the trial the Azerbaijanis tried
their hardest to have doctors certify Safarov as an insane. However,
the efforts of Azerbaijanis failed. Both the district attorney and
our lawyers, relying on the evidence – an axe bought beforehand,
the ethnic motivation of the murder, an attempt of murder, etc. –
were able to prove that the assassin had acted upon a plan, was
conscious of what he was doing, and was sane. In his final speech
the murderer did not plead guilty; he said he had lost self-control,
did not want to kill, had not planned a murder.

The justice did not believe either this, or Safarov’s words that he
did not speak Russian well and denied his own testimony uttered in
Russian. The Hungarian court was surprised to learn that a cold-blooded
killer could be proclaimed Year’s Person.

The Armenian lawyers say it was the triumph of European justice and
human values, and more than just a defeat for Azerbaijan. The court
administered the harshest punishment the Hungarian laws provide for.

Safarov will serve his sentence in Hungary, at a maximum-security
penitentiary. Even if Azerbaijan succeeds in signing with Hungary an
agreement on extradition, it will not be applied to Safarov. “By the
end of the investigation there was a decision of the district attorney
to transfer the case to a Baku court. We prevented it. They have been
consistently trying to transfer the case to Baku. Presently there is
no agreement yet.” If the 30 years in the verdict pass, and Safarov,
who will be 60 by then, is pardoned, he will be banished from Hungary
and will have no right to enter this country for 10 years.

The Armenian party sued material and moral damages, 3.5 million and 5
million Hungarian forints respectively. All in all 8.5 million forints,
which is about 160 thousand euros.

The hearing of the case involving Ramil Safarov who had attacked the
officers of the remand prison in Budapest is scheduled in May.