{"id":1025,"date":"2014-11-19T11:43:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T11:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2014-11-19T11:43:34","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T11:43:34","slug":"pace-condemns-azerbaijans-use-of-prisoner-transfer-treaty-in-axe-murderer-safarov-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=1025","title":{"rendered":"PACE condemns Azerbaijan\u2019s use of prisoner transfer treaty in axe-murderer Safarov case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Gurgen<\/a>
Gurgen Margaryan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has condemned the use by Azerbaijan of a Council of Europe prisoner transfer treaty to justify the immediate release of an Azerbaijani soldier, convicted of murdering Armenian soldier, Gurgen Margaryan in Hungary in 2004, once he had returned to his home country.<\/p>\n

In a resolution<\/a> adopted during its meeting in Brussels, based on a report<\/a> by Christopher Chope<\/a> (United Kingdom, EC), the Standing Committee \u2013 which brings together around 60 leading members of PACE and acts in its name \u2013 said the use of Article 12 of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons<\/a> in the case of Ramil Safarov was \u201ca violation of the principles of good faith in international relations and of the rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Safarov was convicted in 2007 of murdering an Armenian fellow participant on a NATO training course in Hungary and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release for 30 years. After serving eight years of his sentence in Hungary, he was transferred to Azerbaijan under the Convention, which allows the transfer of foreign prisoners to their home countries for primarily humanitarian reasons.<\/p>\n

Upon his arrival Mr Safarov was welcomed as a national hero and granted an immediate pardon \u2013 long before the expiry of the minimum sentence set by the Hungarian court \u2013 and a retroactive promotion as well as other rewards, according to the resolution.<\/p>\n

The Convention is \u201cnot designed to be used for the immediate release of prisoners upon return to their home country\u201d, the parliamentarians pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile recognising that States Parties, by virtue of Article 12 of the convention, have a sovereign right to grant pardons and amnesties to persons sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the Assembly recalls that the principles of good faith in international relations, recognised, inter alia, by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and of the rule of law require that treaties be interpreted in line with their objects and purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) The Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has condemned the use [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azerbaijan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}