Lt. Gurgen Markarian was brutally murdered by Ramil Safarov who is now free

BUDAPEST, WASHINGTON— An Azerbaijani military officer sentenced to life in prison in Hungary for hacking to death an Armenian officer was sent back to his homeland on Friday and, despite assurances, immediately pardoned and freed by his country’s president, reported the Associated Press.

Lt. Ramil Safarov was given a life sentence in 2006 by the Budapest City Court after he confessed to killing Lt. Gurgen Markarian of Armenia while both were in Hungary for a 2004 NATO language course.

Hungary returned the 35-year-old Safarov to Azerbaijan only after receiving assurances from the Azerbaijani Justice Ministry that Safarov’s sentence, which included the possibility of parole after 25 years, would be enforced.

“The Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan has further informed the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice of Hungary that Ramil Sahib Safarov’s sentence will not be modified but will immediately continue to be enforced, based on the Hungarian judgment,” the Hungarian ministry said in a statement issued before the news of Safarov’s release was known.

The ministry said it based its decision on the 1983 Strasbourg Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

In a brief statement posted in English on his website, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev decreed Friday that Safarov “should be freed from the term of his punishment.”

Hungary’s Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Safarov’s release.