SAFAROV RELEASE “IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL NORMS”, AZERBAIJAN TELLS HUNGARY IN NOTE
Politics.hu
Sept 7 2012
Hungary
By MTI
Azerbaijan has sent Hungary a diplomatic note stating that the release
of Ramil Sahib Safarov was in line with the country’s legislation
and international norms, the spokesman of the Azerbaijani foreign
ministry said at a press briefing in Baku on Thursday.
Elman Abdullayev said that the country’s constitution gives the
president of Azerbaijan exclusive right to grant a pardon, Azeri news
website trend.az reported.
Ramil Safarov, an Azeri officer who received a life sentence in
Hungary for killing an Armenian soldier, was repatriated last week,
and was pardoned and released by the Azeri authorities on arrival in
his home country, unleashing a diplomatic storm. Armenia has suspended
diplomatic ties with Hungary.
According to trend.az, the spokesman said that the Safarov issue
should be considered in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
as Safarov had witnessed ethnic cleansing by Armenia against the
Azerbaijani population.
Zsolt Nemeth, the parliamentary state Secretary of the Hungarian
Foreign Ministry, summoned Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Hungary Vilayat
Guliyev on Sunday to hand over a diplomatic note and inform the
ambassador that Hungary considers Azerbaijan’s pardon unacceptable.