At his meeting with Hungarian President László Sólyom Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan thanked him for an unambiguous and fair approach to the investigation of the Gurgen Margaryan murder case displayed by the Hungarian judicial power.

We would remind our readers that, on February 19, 2004, the Armenian officer, Lieutenant Gurgen Margaryan, who attended training courses under the Partnership for Peace program, was axed by the Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who attended the same training courses. Gurgen Margaryan was asleep when the murderer burst into his room.

On April 16, 2006, the court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without possibility of appeal until 2036. The judge, Andras Vaskuti, cited as reasons for the sentence the brutality of the crime and the fact that Safarov showed no remorse.

As regards the Azerbaijani authorities, they, including President Ilham Aliyev, tried to get Safarov extradited, but the Hungarian authorities do not yield to pressure.