Tuesday, May 26 2020 13:50

ArmInfo.The European Court of Human Rights ruled on the murder of an Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azeri Ramil Safarov in Hungary during training exercises under the NATO program.

So, according to the decision of the ECHR, published on the court's  website, Azerbaijan violated the Convention by releasing the  extradited officer Safarov.

It should be noted that the applicants are two citizens of Armenia,  the successors of Gurgen Margaryan - Hayk Makuchyan and the late  Samvel Minasyan.

The Court also notes that the case concerns not only the release of  the extradited prisoner, but also his heroization.   The Court found that although Azerbaijan had clearly endorsed R.S.'s  acts, not only by releasing him but also by promoting him, paying him  salary arrears and granting him a flat upon his return, it could not  be held responsible under the stringent standards of international  law which required a State to "acknowledge" such acts "as its own".  Moreover, those acts had been part of a private decision and had been  so flagrantly abusive and far removed from the official status of a  military officer that the Court could not see how his commanding  officers could have foreseen them or how Azerbaijan could be  responsible for them just because he was a State agent.  

However, it found that there had been no justification for the  Azerbaijani authorities' failure to enforce the punishment of R.S.  and to in effect grant him impunity for a serious hate crime.  

Moreover, the applicants had provided sufficient evidence to show  that R.S.'s pardon and other measures in his favour had been  ethnically motivated, namely statements by high-ranking officials  expressing their support for his conduct, and in particular the fact  that it had been directed against Armenian soldiers, and a specially  dedicated page to R.S. on the President of Azerbaijan's website'',  the statement published on the ECHR website reads.  

The Court considered that Azerbaijan had assumed responsibility for  the enforcement of R.S.'s prison sentence upon his transfer, and from  that point on, it had been called upon to provide an adequate  response to a very serious ethnically-biased crime for which one of  its citizens had been convicted in another country. Given the  extremely tense political situation between Azerbaijan and Armenia,  the authorities should have been all the more cautious. Instead of  enforcing R.S.'s sentence, however, he had been set free and treated  as an innocent or wrongfully convicted person and bestowed with  benefits that had not apparently had any legal basis under domestic  law.  

No tangible evidence had been brought before the Court to show that  the Hungarian authorities had unequivocally been aware or should have  been aware that R.S. would be released by Azerbaijan. Indeed, given  the time already served by R.S. in a Hungarian prison, the Court did  not see how the authorities of that country could have done anything  more than respect the procedure and the spirit of the Transfer  Convention and trust that another Council of Europe State would act  in good faith. There had therefore been no procedural violation of  Article 2 by Hungary.   The Court noted that the Hungarian courts had found that the sole  motive for R.S.'s acts had been the fact that his victims were  Armenian. The ethnic bias of his crimes had thus been fully  investigated by Hungary and the Court could see no reason to question   the courts' conclusions.  

The Court held, unanimously, that Azerbaijan was to pay the  applicants, jointly, 15,143.33 pounds sterling (GBP) in respect of  costs and expenses 

To note, on February 19, 2004, the lieutenant of the Armenian army,  Gurgen Margaryan, who was sent to Budapest for English courses as  part of the NATO Partnership for Peace program, was brutally  slaughtered with an ax by an Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, a  participant in the same courses. On April 13, 2006, the Budapest  trial court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without the right  to pardon for 30 years. On August 31, 2012, Azerbaijani officer Ramil  Safarov, sentenced to life in prison in Hungary, was extradited to  his homeland. On the same day, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev  signed a decree on his pardon. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan  paid the killer a salary accumulated for the entire time that he was  in custody (more than eight years), provided him with an apartment,  and also awarded him the rank of major. In connection with the  extradition of Safarov, Armenia suspended diplomatic relations and  all official ties with Hungary.