Azerbaijan says US stance on officer's pardon 'unclear'
Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and US Deputy
Secretary of State William Burns have had a phone
conversation.
According to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elman Abdullayev, during the conversation, Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan deems as unclear the United States` position on last week's pardon by President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijani officer Ramil Safarov, who was serving a life sentence in Hungary.
Safarov, 35, who participated in NATO exercises in 2004 in Hungary, was charged with the murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan, who insulted the Azerbaijani flag. A Budapest court sentenced Safarov to life imprisonment without the right to a parole for 30 years.
Mammadyarov noted that the case of Ramil Safarov was a result of long-standing occupation of Azerbaijani territory by Armenia, adding that Azerbaijani people were subjected to ethnic cleansing during the 1990s war.
Safarov hails from Jabrayil, one of Azerbaijan's regions that are under Armenian occupation.
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