Hungarian Government was Bribed to Extradite Safarov to Azerbaijan – MEP

YEREVAN (Armenpress) — MEP Frank Engel gave an interview to Hungarian “Budapest Beacon” speaking about the recently revealed “Azerbaijani Laundromat”, touching upon Hungaria’s role and participation in the money laundering process.

Frank Engel spoke about the arrest, verdict and later the extradition of Azerbaijani Ramil Safarov who was charged for murdering Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan in Hungary with an axe when the latter was asleep.

“But since I knew what kind of Hungarian government had come into office in 2010, I wasn’t that surprised. And my first thought, of course, knowing Azerbaijan, was that they (the Hungarian government) had been bought!”, Engel said.

He stated that former Prime Minister of Hungary Ferenc Gyurcsány didn’t hand Safarov over when he was in power. “And when I spoke to Gyurcsány, he told me they didn’t do it because they had all the reasons to believe he would be instantly set free by Azerbaijan”, Frank Engel added.

“This man, Safarov, had committed a heinous crime on Hungarian soil. He was convicted by a Hungarian court to serve a criminal sentence in a Hungarian prison for a long time. The Hungarians were not just going to hand him over to the Azerbaijanis — before the return to power of Fidesz”, the MEP said.

He told that former Prime Ministers Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai have told him how the Azerbaijani government tried to persuade them to extradite Safarov – first orally, then in the written promise that he would serve out the sentence that was pronounced by the Hungarian court.

“The difference, of course, is that neither Gyurcsány nor Bajnai believed these obviously false promises. Then comes Viktor Orbán and – miraculously – after an official state visit to Azerbaijan, Safarov is back home a few weeks later. Nobody can tell me this had nothing to do with money”, the MEP stressed, adding that there could be no reason for which Orbán and the government led by him would have worsen relations with Armenia if they were not paid for that.