ELMAR BROK ON THE PARDONING AND GLORIFICATION OF RAMIL SAFAROV
ARMENPRESS
5 September, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: Elmar Brok (EPP), chairman of the
Foreign Affairs committee in the European Parliament, criticised the
decision by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to pardon Ramil Safarov,
who has confessed to the murder of an Armenian Soldier in Hungary 2004,
reports Armenpress citing EPP Press Service. “I am deeply concerned
about the decision to pardon Ramil Safarov upon arrival in Baku,
to publicly glorify him, promote him to Major rank, pay him 8 years
of salary and offer him an apartment. Azerbaijan had given a written
promise to the Hungarian authorities that Mr Safarov would continue
to serve the lifetime sentence for at least 25 years when he arrives
in Azerbaijan. Now Azerbaijan has broken this promise.
Safarov is an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered the Armenian officer
Gurgen Margaryan at their NATO training camp in Budapest in 2004. With
the decision to set him free, Azerbaijan is circumventing the valid
conviction of the court of an EU member state and is presenting a
murderer as a role model to cheering children in Baku.”