The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, led by Committee Chairman Jozef Regec, unanimously adopted on Tuesday Senator Jaromír Štětina’s resolution, whereby the Committee expressed its concern by the Ramil Safarov case.   

“The Committee expresses its deep concern and regret that the Azerbaijani president decided to grant pardon to Ramil Safarov, whom the court of a European Union member state had sentenced for murder; it considers this decision [by the Azerbaijani president]—as a symbolic move—that could add to further escalation of tension in relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan; also, it is concerned that this decision would hamper the reconciliation process of the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict-affected societies, and it jeopardizes the future chance for a peaceful development of interpersonal contacts in the region; [and] commissions the Committee Chairman, Senator Jozef Regec, to inform the Senate President about this resolution,” the motion reads. 

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.