ECtHR asks Azerbaijan to respond in case of Armenian officer's murder

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has asked the governments of Azerbaijan and Hungary to present the official answers in the complaint filed by relatives of Gurgen Margaryan, an officer of the Armenian Armed Forces, who was killed by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in April 2006, the Budapest City Court sentenced Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment for the murder of Gurgen Margaryan committed in Budapest on February 19, 2004. On August 31, 2012, Ramil Safarov was extradited to Azerbaijan, where President Ilham Aliev signed a decree to pardon him.

Family members of the killed Armenian officer claim that Azerbaijan violates Articles 2 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Meanwhile, they also accuse Hungary of violating Article 2 of the Convention.

The complaint states that Azerbaijan violated the right of Gurgen Margaryan to life not only in connection with the murder, but also as a result of the fact that Ramil Safarov's pardon violated the sentence. According to the complaint, Gurgen Margaryan fell victim to a crime motivated by ethnic hatred, which was later acquitted through the announcement of pardon to Ramil Safarov.

Hungary is accused, since the authorities allowed the extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan without the assurance that he would serve the full term of his sentence in the country.

The ECtHR is waiting for responses from the governments of Azerbaijan and Hungary until this May.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.