Row after Azerbaijan frees killer

Published on 04/09/2012 03:27

Russia has expressed concern over a decision by Azerbaijan to pardon a convicted killer Hungary had sent back to Azerbaijan to serve his prison sentence.

Lieutenant Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence in 2006 by a Hungarian court after he confessed to killing Lieutenant Gurgen Markarian, an Armenian, while both were in Hungary for a 2004 Nato language course. ­Azerbaijan and Armenia are ex-Soviet neighbours who have been locked in a long-standing feud over the mountainous territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s president pardoned and freed Safarov after he was returned home last Friday, prompting Armenia to break off diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Hungarian authorities insisted that they returned Safarov, 35, to Azerbaijan only after receiving assurances that his sentence, which included the possibility of parole after 25 years, would be enforced.