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Dead soldiers' parents claim investigators shielded killers

26 January 2017 14:44 (UTC+04:00)
Dead soldiers' parents claim investigators shielded killers

By Rashid Shirinov

Many people in Armenia don’t believe in justice as they do not rely on the judicial system or the police. The country’s law enforcement agencies mainly back the rich and well-connected people, and turn blind eye to fate and problems of ordinary citizens.

Two Armenian conscripts Grigor Avetisyan and Suren Aramyan, were killed in April 2016. Both were fatally shot by their fellow serviceman Davit Dumikyan, according to the investigation.

The representative of Avetisyan’s next of kin, Peace Dialogue NGO military expert Ruben Martirosyan, however, remains unconvinced about the credibility of the official version of the events and insists that Dumikyan could not have committed the double murder. Authorities, the expert says, are carrying out a flawed investigation.

The investigator says that on April 6, Dumikyan turned himself in to the Vardenis military police and confessed to killing Avetisyan and Aramyan: Dumikyan allegedly entered Aramyan’s tent and opened indiscriminate fire at the soldiers inside, before fatally shooting Avetisyan outside the tent. The soldiers’ killing, officials say, was an act of retaliation for a previous harassment and humiliation. Dumikyan has been charged with murder, committed in a manner dangerous to the lives of many people.

Ruben Martirosyan, talking to Epress.am, stressed that there are a number of circumstances that refute the version according to which the murder was committed by Dumikyan.

“We have an expert opinion which proves that Davit was not the shooter: for example, there were no traces of soot or copper plating on his hands. On top of that, Avetisyan’s father, Hermon Avetisyan, has been told by Dumikyan’s relatives that the soldier subsequently retracted his confession, claiming that ‘a tall colonel’ at the military police had beaten him into confessing,” the expert said, adding that authorities have yet to officially announce this.

The investigation authority has orally informed Martirosyan that the investigation is currently looking into an alternative version, according to which “Avetisyan allegedly killed Aramyan and was subsequently killed by Dumikyan.” This version, the expert said, “goes beyond the boundaries not only of law but also morality,” since the killed young men were close friends, both originally from Artashat, and had never had a problem with each other.

There remain many open questions regarding the weapons seized from the crime scene, Martirosyan added: on the four rifles sent for examination there were found no fingerprints suitable for comparison.

Martirosyan also spoke about other “questionable circumstances” surrounding the case. Hakob Gevorgyan and Areg Baghdasaryan, the two soldiers who were injured from Dumikyan’s alleged fire, have claimed in their testimony that they were sleeping when Dumikyan came and opened fire in the tent.

“They have both been injured in the leg. It doesn’t sound very convincing to us that Dumikyan’s fire hit them strictly in the legs, so it’s highly doubtful that they were actually asleep. First of all, Hermon Avetisyan has information about past conflicts between Hakob and his son. Secondly, we have reliable information that Hakob, before heading to the defensive post, had beaten or otherwise hit Captain Roman Hakobyan, the post commander, for which he had been incarcerated for a month,” Martirosyan said, suggesting that on the day of the incident there was a brawl involving a group of soldiers, which ended with the killing of the two conscripts.

Thus, the lawlessness and mendacity continue to prosper in Armenian justice institutions. Because of this, many ordinary Armenians get forcibly put into jails while the real murderers, who are well-connected in higher circles, walk around free.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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