CoE Committee of Ministers urges Azerbaijan to implement ECHR ruling in Gurgen Margaryan case

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS.The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has issued a new decision as part of its monitoring of the implementation of judgments in the case of Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan, concerning the 2004 murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azerbaijani serviceman in Budapest, according to the press service of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

In 2004, during a NATO training course in Budapest, Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov gruesomely murdered Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan and attempted to kill another Armenian officer, Hayk Makuchyan. Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hungarian court. However, after being transferred to Azerbaijan in 2012, he was pardoned, awarded, and granted material and official privileges.

Highlighting the importance of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgment, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has outlined the following demands:

Four years after the ECHR ruling, the Azerbaijani authorities have yet to implement the required individual measures.

The Committee reiterates its call for the immediate payment of the applicants' representatives' expenses.

It has also requested evidence that the pardon-related letters published on the Azerbaijani president’s website have been removed.

The Committee further emphasized that individuals guilty of such serious crimes must be deprived of the right to hold public office.

It has once again demanded clarification regarding the legality of other privileges granted to Safarov.

The Committee stressed that such actions must be prevented in the future and that any pardons or privileges granted for such crimes must adhere to the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights.