In an article entitled, “A Hero’s Welcome for a Convicted Killer Reignites Tensions,” Ellen Bary of the New York Times’ Moscow bureau cited RSC Director Richard Giragosian, as part of a longer interview Giragosian provided on the wider implications from the crisis over the Azerbaijani pardon and promotion of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani officer convicted of murdering an Armenian colleague during a NATO education course in Budapest, Hungary in 2004. Safarov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Hungarian court but after a Hungarian decision to extradite him to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani president issued him an immediate pardon, followed by a promotion and a cash award.
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