U.S. Senator urges immediate re-incarceration of Azeri ax-murderer

September 28, 2012 - 10:04 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - California Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has expressed her outrage over Azerbaijan’s pardon, promotion and praise for convicted axe-murderer Ramil Safarov, and called for his immediate re-incarceration, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

In a strongly worded letter to President Aliyev, Senator Boxer stressed that Safarov’s release is "deeply disturbing and provocative action has only served to inflame tensions and endanger efforts to forge a lasting peace in the Caucasus." Calling the Safarov’s pardon a "blatant disregard for the rule of law," she went on to demand that Aliyev "adhere to the standards of the international law by returning Safarov to jail, where he belongs, for the heinous crime that he committed."

Last week, during the Center for European Policy Analysis' U.S.-Central Europe Strategy Forum, Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon told RFE/RL that the State Department continues "to express our dismay and disappointment. We’re not satisfied with what has happened here. In our view this is someone who should have continued to serve out his sentence and certainly we were appalled by the glorification that we heard in some corridors of somebody who was convicted of murder, and so no, we’re not satisfied with the responses."

Gurgen Margaryan

On February 19, 2004, Lieutenant of the Armenian Armed Forces Gurgen Margaryan, 26, was hacked to death, while asleep, by a fellow Azerbaijani participant, lieutenant Ramil Safarov, in Budapest during a three-month English language course in the framework of Partnership for Peace NATO-sponsored program. In accordance with Budapest District Court sentence dated April 13, 2006, Ramil Safarov was life imprisoned for murdering the Armenian officer.

On February 22, 2007, Budapest Court rejected the Azerbaijani military officer's appeal against a life sentence. The appeal court ruled that the decision brought by Budapest District Court against 30-year-old Lieutenant Ramil Safarov, should stand.

On August 31, 2012, Hungary extradited Safarov back to Azerbaijan, where he was promptly pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.