Armenian lawyer vows to prevent Azeri officer from serving time at home

Arminfo
30 Nov 04

YEREVAN

The Armenian side will make every effort to make sure that Azerbaijani
officer Ramil Safarov is not sent to Azerbaijan to serve his prison
term after the Budapest court passes a sentence on him, lawyer Nazeli
Vardanyan, who represents the interests of Armenian officer Gurgen
Markaryan killed in Budapest, told a press conference today.

She said that there is no confidence that Ramil Safarov will serve his
prison term in Azerbaijan. Commenting on Azerbaijani media reports
that the Hungarian ombudsman has spoken about the possibility of
sending Ramil Safarov home after a sentence is handed down on him,
Nazeli Vardanyan pointed out that she did not have such information,
and this might be another disinformation trick by the Azerbaijani
media.

Talking about the first session of the Budapest court on 23 November,
the lawyer pointed out that it was said during the session that Ramil
Safarov witnessed the Xocali conflict [1992] between Armenians and
Azerbaijanis in childhood and was full of a feeling of revenge. He
dreamt of becoming a soldier and taking revenge on the Armenians since
his childhood.

At the same time, Nazeli Vardanyan pointed out that the events in
Xocali took place in 1992 whereas Safarov went to study in Baku in
1991. Thus, he cannot have witnessed those events. Apart from that,
the lawyer added, a forensic examination showed that despite his
higher education, the intellectual development of Ramil Safarov, who
is absolutely healthy both psychologically and physically, has stopped
at the secondary school level.

Safarov is being charged under Part 2 of Article 166 of the Hungarian
Criminal Code which envisages 10-15 years' imprisonment to life
imprisonment. Nazeli Vardanyan pointed out that Safarov's defence is
trying to requalify the charge under Part 1 of the same article, which
envisages five to 15 years' imprisonment.

She also pointed out that the Azerbaijani officer's defence asked to
postpone the second session of the court till 8 February and invite
new witnesses, including a psychologist and the second Azerbaijani
officer who studied in Budapest together with Ramil Safarov.

Nazeli Vardanyan said that in parallel with the trial on the murder of
the Armenian officer, another trial is taking place in Hungary in
connection with Ramil Safarov insulting employees of a military
school.

A representative of the Armenian Defence Ministry, Gayk Demoyan,
pointed out that after the murder, Azerbaijani society ranked Ramil
Safarov as a national hero, creating mendacious propaganda about the
motives of the crime. According to their assurances, the Armenian
officers had allegedly cleaned their shoes with the Azerbaijani flag
and watched video films about "Armenian atrocities in Xocali".

However, the witnesses testified that there had been no conflicts or
clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani officers. He said that
Ramil Safarov's defence had repeatedly asked the court to demonstrate
the video film about "the brutality of the Armenians" and tried to
hand the judge a parcel that was not attached to the case and would
not influence the court ruling. "We knew in advance which steps the
Azerbaijanis might take and were ready for that," he added. Gayk
Demoyan noted that the Hungarian media had a great interest in the
trial. Representatives of the press were given booklets and
publications, specially prepared by the Armenian side, which present
real facts and events that caused the incident.

We should remind you that on 19 February this year, Ramil Safarov
hacked Gurgen Markaryan to death while he was asleep. Both officers
were attending NATO-sponsored English language courses in Budapest.