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Armenian delegate to PACE urges Hungary to clarify how murderer Safarov was sold for $7.6 million

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YEREVAN. – Armenian delegate to PACE Naira Zohrabyan called to clarify how Hungaria sold killer Ramil Safarov to Azerbaijan for $7.6 million.

Speaking during the opening day of the Assembly’s autumn session, Zohrabyan said former president Pedro Agramunt’s resignation was simply the first step to clean the Assembly from corruption network.

“It turns out that many well-known European figures who have been receiving huge sums from the Estonian branch of the Danish bank Danske Bank for decades have been involved in a major corruption scandal. I hope our colleagues from the Hungarian delegation will send a question to the political leadership of their country regarding the scandalous disclosure saying Hungary has sold murderer Ramil Safarov, who axed Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in his sleep, for $ 7.6 million,” Zohrabyan said.

The Hungarian colleagues should be interested in how millions of dollars were transferred from Metastar Invest to an account opened in the Hungarian MKB bank and how these accounts are associated with the Hungarian authorities, the Armenian delegate said.

Zohrabyan recalled that Metastar Invest is a company that made regular transfers to ex-Vice President of PACE, Luca Volonte, “who is now probably telling the Italian Prosecutor General about the warm relations between him and his totalitarian friend.”

The Lithuanian Seimas has recently appealed to the Lithuanian financial crimes investigation body to investigate the possible involvement of Lithuanian figures in the PACE corruption scandal. Zohrabyan expressed hope that other Council of Europe members will follow their lead.

Frank Engel: Nobody can tell me Safarov’s release by Hungary had nothing to do with money

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From the moment Safarov was sentenced in Budapest, there were repeated demarches by the Azerbaijani government to convince the Hungarian authorities to hand the man over, member of the European Parliament Frank Engel said in an interview with Budapest Beacon.

The Azerbaijani side promised that he would serve out the sentence that was pronounced by the Hungarian court.

“The difference, of course, is that neither Gyurcsány nor Bajnai [former Hungarian PMs – ed.] believed these obviously false promises,” Engel said.

“Then comes Orbán and – miraculously – after an official state visit to Azerbaijan, Safarov is back home a few weeks later. Nobody can tell me this had nothing to do with money. There would be no reason why the champion of Christianity in Europe, Viktor Orbán, would forsake his nation’s friendship with the first Christian nation on Earth, which is Armenia, if he and his government were not paid for doing it, if they were not paid for risking the Armenian element in order for some other elements to arrive [Safarov murdered an Armenian in Budapest].”

“Obviously, now, when we suddenly discover interesting flows of Azeri money to a Hungarian bank account at precisely the relevant time back in 2012 between – in the wider sense – Azerbaijan and Hungary, I must say that even if the amounts are nowhere near the 3 billion that I heard about at the time, but are the 8 or 9 million Euros that we are talking about now, and which are difficult to contest for the Hungarian authorities, it pretty much looks like pocket money received in return for a favor. But who received it is of course something we do not know.”

HUMAN RIGHTS Safarov Affair: Azerbaijan, Hungary held accountable at ECtHR over axe-murder release

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Ramil_Safarov_killer_baku1The 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.