The governments of Azerbaijan and Hungary have been asked by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to respond formally to a case brought by the relatives of Armenian army officer Gurgen Markaryan, who was axed to death in his sleep by Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov in Budapest in 2004.

Markaryan’s relatives are represented by European Human Rights Advocacy Centre (based in Middlesex University, UK), Legal Guide (Armenian NGO) and Nazeli Vardanyan.

Markaryan and Safarov were attending a NATO-sponsored English-language course Safarov Affair: Azerbaijan, Hungary held accountable at ECtHR over axe-murder release in Budapest. On February 19, 2004, Safarov murdered Markaryan 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 a move that angered Armenia and Armenians around the world, Hungary transferred Safarov to Azerbaijan in August 2012 with a view to his serving his sentence there. In what was widely condemned internationally, Safarov was given a hero’s welcome in Azerbaijan, with President Ilham Aliyev immediately granting him a pardon, promoting him in service and presenting him with an apartment and other privileges.

In September 2012 Armenia severed its diplomatic relations with Hungary. And the Markaryan family later took Baku and Budapest to the ECtHR over the Safarov extradition and pardon. There is also a case from another Armenian officer, Hayk Makuchyan, whom Safarov also intended to murder during the same incident in Budapest.

The governments of Azerbaijan and Hungary are required to lodge their responses with the Strasbourg-based Court by May. The Court has also invited the Armenian Government to submit its comments.