YEREVAN.- Extradition and pardoning of Ramil Safarov is causing deep concern, Latvian FM Edgars Rinkevics said during a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian.

He recalled that Latvia made a statement on the issue during the September meeting of representatives of Baltic and Scandinavian states, the Nordic Baltic Eight, in Vilnius.  

“Latvia, just as EU representatives, is showing deep concern about the issue. We are confident that such moves do not further the dialogue existing in fragile situation,” Rinkevics told reporters in Yerevan.

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. 

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am