Summary
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights considers
the legal implications of the case of Ramil Safarov, who was transferred
under the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons from Hungary
to Azerbaijan, where he was granted a presidential pardon, released,
and “rewarded” for murdering an Armenian soldier.
Although this pardon was not formally in violation of the
convention (Article 12 of which provides for such a possibility),
it was contrary to the latter’s purpose of ensuring the continued
enforcement, closer to home, of prison sentences handed down abroad,
in the interest of justice and social rehabilitation. The committee stresses
that States must apply the convention in good faith. In order to
prevent the abusive use of Article 12 of the convention, as occurred
in the Safarov case, States are called upon to conclude ad hoc arrangements in
the course of negotiating transfers, notably in cases of a sensitive
diplomatic and political nature, in which the administering State
should confirm its commitment to the object and purpose of the convention.
