Watchdog

BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has passed a resolution deploring the pardoning of an Azerbaijani officer who killed an Armenian serviceman in Hungary eight years ago.

The resolution says the decision to release Ramil Safarov is "a gesture which could contribute to further escalation of the tensions" between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

EU lawmakers also said they considered the presidential pardon given to Safarov after his return from Hungary, where he had been sentenced to life imprisonment, as "a violation of the diplomatic assurances given to the Hungarian authorities."

The European Parliament says that an agreement that would deepen the relationship between Baku and Brussels, currently being negotiated, should "include clauses and benchmarks relating to the protection and promotion of human rights and the rule of law."

The prosecutor in Russia's western Smolensk region has said that a sentence against a prominent opposition activist is too harsh.

Taisiya Osipova, an activist from the Other Russia movement, was sentenced last month to eight years in a penal colony on drug dealing charges.

Osipova was arrested in November 2010.

Her lawyers say the case against her was manufactured in order to put pressure on her husband, Sergei Fomchenkov, a senior member of Other Russia.

The court handed Osipova a 10-year sentence in December.

The regional court in Smolensk ordered a new trial in February.

The European Parliament passed a resolution on September 13 condemning Russia's use of its judiciary for political purposes, mentioning Osipova among Russian opposition activists being prosecuted because of their political views.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax