CONVICTED OFFICER’S LAWYER SAYS CASE NOT LOST YET
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 19 2006
Azerbaijan has not lost the case of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani
officer sentenced for life by a Hungarian court for killing an
Armenian counterpart in 2004, the officer’s lawyer, Adil Ismayilov,
told a news conference in Baku on Tuesday.
He urged the public to stop speculations that the trial has been
lost. “We must win the case and we will win it,” the lawyer said.
Ismayilov said there were great opportunities for winning the case
in higher court instances and that it was necessary to deal with the
issue more seriously.
Ismayilov sees as perfectly normal the frequent actions of protest
being staged in Azerbaijan in the wake of Safarov’s life sentence. He
said it was people’s right to express protest at the decision.
However, he urged protesters not to ask for Safarov’s freedom but
for a fair trial.
“I hope the Court of Appeal will hand down a ruling which will be
commensurate with Ramil Safarov’s personality and with what he has
done,” Ismayilov said and added that the second instance court could
change the sentence to a 10-15 years’ imprisonment because according
to Hungarian law, if there is a mental condition that does not rule
out insanity at the time a crime is committed, the sentence can be
commuted significantly.
He went on to say that the judge could even sentence Safarov to three
to five years in prison. The lawyer explained that it was necessary
to capitalize of the two examinations which confirmed that Safarov
was in a state of emotional distress when committing the killing.
Ismayilov said further that the defense was currently waiting for
receiving the official court sentence before it will file an appeal.
“As soon as we receive the sentence in writing, we will appeal against
it to the Court of Appeal. If the latter does not consider the case
fairly, the Azerbaijani side will appeal further to the Hungarian
Supreme Court,” he said.
He indicated that the country’s Supreme Court does not look at the
content of cases being brought to it and only establishes whether
previous proceedings have been in compliance with law. Therefore,
if it discovers any irregularities, it sends cases back to the first
instance court. Ismayilov said if the Supreme Court did not pronounce
a fair ruling either, the defense would take the case to the European
Court of Human Rights.
“However, we are hopeful that things won’t go that far,” he concluded.