YEREVAN. – Armenia has to act as a third party in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) examination of the case into the murder of Armenian military officer Gurgen Margaryan.

The first Human Rights Defender of Armenia, “Against Legal Arbitrariness” NGO Executive Director, and public activist Larisa Alaverdyan told the above-said to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

She noted that by brutally killing Margaryan, Azerbaijani military serviceman Ramil Safarov had conducted the official anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan.

“The obligation of Armenia is to bring circumstances and facts which will prove the official racist, anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan,” Alaverdyan added.

She expressed a view that the main course of this case inspires hope that justice will ultimately prevail.

In her words, Safarov’s return to Azerbaijan by Hungary was a flagrant violation of the precepts and norms of international law.

Larisa Alaverdyan noted that the ECtHR was late on considering the case into the murder of Margaryan, since it demanded a thorough review,

As reported earlier, Friday, February 19, 2016, marks the 12th anniversary of the brutal killing of Armenian military officer Gurgen Margaryan.

Margaryan was murdered by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, in the Hungarian capital city of Budapest in 2004.

The two military servicemen were attending a NATO-sponsored English-language course in Budapest. On February 19, 2004, Safarov murdered Margaryan by decapitating him with an axe. In April 2006, Safarov was found guilty of murder by the Budapest City Court, and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of conditional release after 30 years. The court found that Safarov had intended to kill two Armenian participants at the course on the anniversary of the beginning of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. After the Court of Appeal upheld this judgment in February 2007, Safarov began serving his sentence in a Hungarian prison.

In August 2012, the Hungarian Minister of Justice approved Safarov’s transfer to Azerbaijan with a view to his serving his sentence there. A few hours after, however, Safarov was transferred on August 31, 2012, he was granted a pardon by the Azerbaijani President and set free. He was also promoted to major, awarded eight years’ salary arrears, and offered an apartment.

In response to this development, Armenia suspended its diplomatic ties with Hungary.

Ramil Safarov’s pardoning was condemned by virtually all international organizations.