YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 3, ARMENPRESS: Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Štefan Füle, European Commissioner on Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy issued today the following statement on the release of Ramil Safarov. As Armenpress was informed at the Press center of the European External Action Service, the statement reads as follows, "The High Representative and Commissioner Füle are concerned by the news that the President of

Azerbaijan has pardoned Azerbaijani army officer Ramil Safarov, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Armenian Army officer Gurgen Margaryan in Budapest in 2004.

Ramil Safarov was transferred from Hungary to Azerbaijan on 31 August on the basis of an

Azerbaijani request, in the framework of the Convention of Strasbourg on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons of 21 March 1983, to serve the rest of his sentence. EU representatives are in contact with the relevant authorities and will continue to follow the situation closely.

In the interest of regional stability and on-going efforts towards reconciliation, the High

Representative and Commissioner Füle reiterate their call on Azerbaijan and Armenia to exercise restraint, on the ground as well as in public statements, in order to prevent an escalation of the situation."