Hungary’s ombudsman for fundamental rights said on Friday that whereas the Hungarian state did not break international law and acted within its scope of authority when it transferred home an Azeri officer convicted for the murder of an Armenian, it should have exercised more caution.
Szabo told MTI on Friday that after concluding an investigation in the case, he found that the Hungarian government should have been clearly aware that Azerbaijan was likely to think Ramil Safarov had committed a “patriotic duty” when “he brutally murdered his defenceless Armenian fellow officer attending a NATO seminar in Budapest.”
It could certainly be expected that once the murderer is transferred to Azerbaijan, he would be pardoned and freed, Szabo said.
The Hungarian government failed to act with due foresight by failing to seek a guarantee from Azerbaijan that the officer would not be pardoned, Szabo added. This threatened legal certainty, Szabo said.
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Hungary repatriated Safarov in late August on the understanding that he would continue to serve the life sentence he received in Hungary in February 2004 for murdering the Armenian. Armenia decided to break diplomatic ties with Hungary on the day of Safarov’s release.
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