PACE Discussed Ramil Safarov"s Extradition and Pardon

Strasbourg/05.10.12/Turan On Thursday the plenary PACE autumn session discussed the issue of extradition and clemency of the Azerbaijani military man Ramil Safarov, convicted in Hungary to life imprisonment for the murder of an Armenian military man.

As previously stated at the discussions, no resolution was accepted.

As the correspondent of Turan reported from Strasbourg, anticipating the debate, the head of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Christopher Chop said that a proposal for a discussion of this issue came to the committee last month.

Condemning the killing, he offered to discuss the extradition and clemency of Safarov in the context of the rule of law.

Chop noticed that Safarov was issued based on Article 12 of the Strasbourg Convention on extradition of convicted persons. According to Chop, it is necessary to revise the article in terms of its conformity with the spirit and values ??of the Council of Europe.

The general tone of the discussion was conviction of the release of Safarov. Some MPs even resorted to harsh expressions.

For example, the French parliamentarian Rochbloine, criticizing the position of Hungary, which conveyed Safarov to Azerbaijani authorities, asked a rhetorical question: "How could they believe the oil magnate?"

Some MPs criticized the "glorification" of Safarov in Azerbaijan.

It was also proposed that the Hungarian government should have consulted in advance with the Armenian authorities on this issue. MP from the UK Anderson began to assert the alleged "financial underpinnings" of the Safarov extradition to the motherland and the notorious three billion promised by the Azerbaijani authorities allegedly to Hungary.

MP from the Netherlands, Kox claimed a violation of "essentially the Strasbourg Convention." He believes that the government of Azerbaijan should reconsider its decision. "Those who do not condemn the government of Azerbaijan, do not respect the values ??of the Council of Europe," he said.

Lawmakers from Hungary strongly argued that the procedures on their part were met; they were confident that given to Azerbaijan on August 31, Ramil Safarov would continue serving his sentence at home.

In turn, the rapporteur of the Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan Pedro Agramunt condemned Safarov's release, but at the same time drew attention to the occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan and said the country has a large number of refugees.

Azerbaijani MPs pointed to the need to approach the issue as a whole in the context of the Karabakh conflict. Motives for the murder were closely associated with this problem. The Azeri MPs noted that Azerbaijan is not the first who pardoned people convicted of murder.

In particular, they cited the example of pardoning the Armenian terrorists, who are also heroes of Armenia. However, the Council of Europe did not respond to any of these facts.

The Armenian parliamentarians accused the deputies of "falsifying the Strasbourg Convention."

MP from Turkey, Ahmet Turkesh focused on the terrorist activities of the Armenian organization ASALA, whose members killed 31 Turkish diplomats. "Maybe now the Armenian side will understand how painful it was to the Turkish side after all these murders," said Turkesh.

The Italian deputy Farina spoke in the conciliatory way. According to him, "we have to make sure that the parties have not turned away from each other."

The most radical was the performance of the French parliamentarian Salles, who proposed to completely reconsider the stay of Azerbaijan in the CoE.

Following the discussions, the parliamentarians charged PACE Bureau meeting on October 5 to decide whether to transfer the matter for further discussion to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, or not. -04c-