Azeri President Aliyev reminds Armenia pardoning of its bomber in 2001
BAKU. Sept 7 (Interfax) - Azeri President Ilham Aliyev defended his decision to pardon Azeri officer Ramil Safarov earlier sentenced to life in Hungary for killing an Armenian officer by recalling Armenia's 2001 decision to pardon Varoujan Garabedian, who had been sentenced to life in France for bombing a Turkish Airlines check-in desk at Orly airport in Paris in 1983.
"I want to remind Armenians that the person who committed a terrorist attack at Orly airport, which killed citizens of European countries and the U.S., was extradited to Armenia in 2001. While he was not a citizen of Armenia, the president of this country pardoned him," Aliyev said at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Baku on Friday.
"I wouldn't like to draw parallels between our officer and terrorists. But Ramil Safarov served about 9 years in prison, and his release is absolutely correct from the legal viewpoint. This is a presidential decision, and it is correct. Azerbaijan has returned his officer to his home country," Aliyev said.
It was reported earlier that Aliyev had said at a meeting with Rasmussen that Safarov's extradition from Hungary to Azerbaijan and his further pardoning were absolutely legitimate.
Garabedian, a former member of the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), who was extradited to Armenia from France in 2001, was pardoned and received by then Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, who welcomed his release from a French prison.
Ramil Safarov, a senior lieutenant in the Azeri army, murdered Armenian army lieutenant Gurgen Margarian in 2004 in Budapest, where both were attending an English language course as part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program.
In 2006, a Budapest court gave Safarov a life sentence without the right to seek pardon during the first 30 years of the term.
However, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan on August 31, 2012, assuming that he would serve the rest of his term in his own country, but Azeri President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him the same day.