YEREVAN. – Armenia did not take certain measures in connection with Ramil Safarov’s extradition and subsequent release, opposition Heritage Party Administration Secretary and former MP Stepan Safaryan said during a press conference on Thursday.   

As per Safaryan, it is extremely wrong to place hopes solely on the statements by other countries and international organizations.

“Clear steps are in need to send Safarov back to prison. In addition, the criminal lawsuit against Safarov must be reexamined,” Safaryan noted.

In his view, on the whole, this lawsuit was nut fully examined in Budapest.

“The fact of the murder was examined, but no assessment was given on Azerbaijan’s participation in the setting up of this crime,” Stepan Safaryan stressed.  

The former MP also noted that the European Convention was breached once Safarov was extradited, because this case does not end with the criminal’s extradition, as he was released, too.

“All grounds are there to demand Safarov’s return to prison,” Stepan Safaryan remarked.

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.