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Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemns pardon of Azerbaijan’s Safarov

The Office urged Baku to be guided with international standards in the Safarov case

GENEVA, September 7 (Itar-Tass) — The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the Azerbaijani president’s decision to pardon officer Ramil Safarov and urged Baku to be guided with international standards in the Safarov case.

The Office spokesman said that international standards of responsibility for serious crimes must be applied, ethnically motivated crimes must be condemned and their perpetrators must be punished instead of being lauded by politicians.

He also said the Office fully shared the opinion of OSCE member states and the OSCE Minsk Group, which had expressed fears that the pardon and attempts to acclaim Safarov would harm the Karabakh peace process and Azerbaijani-Armenian confidence.

Senior Lieutenant Safarov killed Armenian serviceman Gurgen Markarian when both were studying at NATO courses in Budapest in 2004 allegedly for defiling the Azerbaijani flag. A Budapest court sentenced him to life in jail in April 2006. Late last week Safarov was extradited from Hungary and pardoned by the Azerbaijani president.