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NATO Secretary General: Pardoning Safarov is a crime

NATO Secretary General: Pardoning Safarov is a crime

7 September 2012

 Extradition of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov and Azerbaijani president's decision to pardon the murderer hinder confidence building between Armenia and Azerbaijan, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a joint press conference with President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, Thursday in Yerevan.

Pardoning of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani officer that killed an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest in 2004, is a crime like his glorification in Azerbaijan.  NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has arrived in Armenia on a two-day official visit on September 5-6. Secretary General Rasmussen is visiting Armenia while traveling to the region. He will visit Baku on September 7. 

Asked how he will shake the hand of the Azerbaijani president who signed the decree to pardon the killer, Rasmussen said he is anxious
about the incident and will express his viewpoint to Aliyev.

To recall, on August 31 the Armenian authorities adopted a decision to suspend diplomatic relations and official contacts with Hungary
after the Hungarian authorities extradited Azeri officer Ramil Safarov, who was sentenced by a Hungarian court to life in jail for
killing sleeping Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan with an axe in Budapest in 2004. Both the officers were undergoing an English
language course under the NATO PfP program. The same day after Safarov's extradition, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev decreed to pardon
and reward the criminal.

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