Safarov Sentenced
RFE/RL reports that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijan Army, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hungarian courty for murdering an Armenia counterpart on a NATO Partnership for Peace training programme in Budapest two years ago.
“Compassion and remorse were completely missing from (Safarov’s) testimony,” Judge Vaskuti said upon announcing the verdict. “During the whole case we waited for him to be at least a bit sorry for the Armenian soldier he killed brutally and for (Markarian’s) family.”
Even so, it is still unclear whether Safarov will serve his sentence in Hungary or whether he will be extradicted to Azerbaijan. Blogian is also uncertain about where Safarov will serve his sentence and refers to information passed on by one anonymous Hungarian journalist.
As a Hungarian journalist* clarifies from Budapest, the persecutor has requested “life sentence with minimum 30 years of imprisonment.” This is way different from asking for “30 years.” The prosecutor also demanded “lifelong ban, expulsion from Hungary” for Ramil Safarov.
Given the nature of the crime, and the fact that Safarov is considered a national hero by some Azerbaijanis, there is no doubt that this would be a grave insult to the memory of Gurgen Markarian — the Armenian officer he decapitated with an axe.
oneworld.blogsome.com