The release of assassin Ramil Safarov provided the Armenian side with a strong instrument in Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement talks, a political analyst said.

“Safarov’s release damaged Azerbaijan’s international image and produced a result contrary to what Azerbaijan hoped to get,” Caucasus Institute director Alexander Iskandaryan told a news conference in Yerevan.

“Setting free a criminal, who was convicted for an appalling murder, and declaring him a hero conflicts with all legal norms,” he said. “The Azerbaijani leadership justified a murderer and thus took the responsibility for the crime.”