Republican Party of Armenia

Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan cancelled his visit to Hungary and turn down the invitation of his Hungarian counterpart to pay an official visit to Bucharest late September. The press office of the Parliament calls the reason for the cancellation the recent decision of Hungarian government to extradite Ramil Safarov. On February 19 of 2004 in Budapest Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov slayed with an ax Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan when the latter was sleeping. The two officers were taking part in English language courses in framework of NATO program in Budapest. Hungarian court sentenced Ramil Safarov to life imprisonment, without a right to be pardoned during the first 30 years in jail. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil Safarov, an assassin who murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan when participating at NATO course in Budapest. The press service of Azerbaijani President released the text of Aliyev’s decree signed on August 31 which is mentioned that it comes into force immediately. Earlier Azerbaijani media, calling anonymous sources had mentioned that Ramil Safarov had been subjected to extradition and already was in Azerbaijan.