YEREVAN. – The release of Ramil Safarov was based upon a political decision, said Hayk Makuchyan—who miraculously had survived death in Budapest and whom the Hungarian court had declared injured party—during a press conference on Saturday, and added that his right to justice is not exercised until the end.      

In Makuchyan’s words, he is preparing to file a lawsuit and defend his rights against the Hungarian government and Azerbaijan. 

“I will petition to all [judicial] instances. But perhaps there is [also] a need to apply to the court of The Hague, since the murder was committed on ethnic grounds,” Makuchyan remarked.  

He also expressed confidence that Armenia’s authorities will help and support him in this affair.

“I had no doubt that Ramil Safarov would not have served his sentence in the case of an extradition. But the Azerbaijani leadership’s cynicism surpassed everything,” Hayk Makuchyan added.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that Ramil Safarov, a lieutenant in the Azerbaijani military, was extradited on Friday 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 to which Hayk Makuchyan likewise was attending.

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 Friday that Armenia is suspending its diplomatic ties with Hungary.