Fundamental Rights Ombudsman Mate Szabo said last week that the Justice Ministry had not responded within 15 days to a request for information regarding Azerbaijani murderer Ramil Safarov’s extradition.

The ministry said that Justice Minister Tibor Navracsics had replied to Szabó’s letter of 19 September, asking the ombudsman to submit an official request for access to classified documents, the Budapest Times reports.

In his letter addressed to the ministry, Szabo said Hungarian law prevents the repatriation of a convicted criminal in the absence of assurances that he will serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on August 31 from Hungary, where he was serving a life sentence—and with no expression of either regret or remorse—for the premeditated axe murder of Armenian lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, in his sleep, during a NATO Partnership for Peace program in Budapest back in 2004.

As expected, Ramil Safarov’s return to Baku was welcomed, as was his act of murder, by the officials of president Ilham Aliyev’s government and much of Azerbaijani society, and the Azerbaijani president immediately granted him a pardon.

And Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan announced on August 31 that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.    

Ramil Safarov’s pardoning is condemned by virtually all international organizations.