Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's ruling party and the local public are concerned and regret the provisions of the European Parliament's September 13 resolution on Azerbaijan and the handover of Ramil Safarov -- a military officer who was transferred to his home country after serving part of his life sentence in Hungary for killing an Armenian officer in Budapest in 2004, the party's website said.

The Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party issued an appeal to the European Parliament saying that while pardoning Ramil Safarov, Azerbaijan remained committed to the principles and norms of international law.

"The position stated in the document is biased... we are concerned by the fact that this document may exacerbate the situation in the region, and hope that parliamentarians will comprehensively study the problem while taking further action on such a sensitive issue," the statement said.

The European Parliament's resolution on Safarov's case, passed on Thursday, expressed regret over Baku's decision to pardon him. The resolution regretted that Safarov was greeted as a hero at home, and expressed concern that this may increase tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which face a long-standing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Safarov hails from Jabrayil, one of Azerbaijan's regions that are under Armenian occupation. 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 parole for 30 years. On August 31, Hungary extradited Safarov to Azerbaijan, where he was pardoned by President Ilham Aliyev.