BUDAPEST. – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday made an announcement in connection with Hungary’s extradition of Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan, Public Television of Hungary reports.

The PM noted that Hungary enacted in compliance with the international standards when extraditing Safarov. 

To the question as to whether the Hungarian side had reached a secret agreement with the Azerbaijani authorities, Viktor Orbán responded:

“Hungary is a democratic country. International standards and rights are not anchored in secret agreements.” 

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.