Legal issues

Rescue Services of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations told our reporter that the commission formed by representatives of different departments has confirmed the suspension of the search.

Noteworthy details are emerging about the April 28, 2010 accident in Armavir. We had informed you that one of the battalion commanders had been tied to a chair, beaten and insulted, and the lieutenant colonel, failing to see any way out of the situation, had somehow managed to free his hands and, grabbing a knife that lay nearby, had stabbed himself four times. He had then been taken to the Military Hospital because of bodily injuries. It turns out that the reference is to battalion commander Khosrov Shaldyan, regular army officer, lieutenant colonel of the division #60925 of the RA Ministry of Defense. Yesterday his relatives informed us that he had been tied and beaten by the military division commander Gevorg Yenokyan nicknamed Marso and his driver, nicknamed Cobra. Incidentally, based on preliminary investigations, Gevorg Yenokyan should hardly have been punished for what he had done. The thing is that on the day of the presidential elections in 2008, he had actively and openly participated in the electoral falsifications in the electoral district of 40/05, in the community of Koghb. At that time, he was the commander of the military division of Koghb. After that he was promoted and appointed to the position of commander of a bigger military division. Incidentally, the Ministry of Defense confirms that such an accident did indeed befall Kh. Shaldyan, but they flatly deny that he was punished in the way he was, for voicing his frank opinion about the Minister of Defense; they also have not publicized the names of those who had beaten him. Meanwhile, our reporter was told by the Investigation Services of the RA MD that there are no suspects, nor is anyone arrested.

The reason for the Deputy Minister’s dismissal is the shoot-out of Nor Nork. According to our sources in the government, Vardan Karapetyan will be replaced by Major General Vardan Avetisyan, Head of the Media and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Defense, who is also the son of Serzh Sargsyan’s aunt, and is from Tegh village by birth. It should be noted that Serzh Sargsyan treats his nephew with particular care: Major General Vardan Avetisyan was awarded the rank of Major General when he was 39 years old and has many medals.

Arthur Sakunts, coordinator of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor office (HCAV) informed our reporter of this fact. Let us remind you that the day after the accident he had talked to two released young men—Norayr and Arayik. The human rights defender had found the first one beaten and bed-ridden. But a few days ago the young men were invited to the police station, their passports were returned and they were “offered” to leave the country. The day before, Arthur Sakunts had met with the other three young men, who together with Vahan Khalafyan, had been detained and then arrested—Arthur Ispiryan, Shiraz Markosyan and David Gyulumyan. The latter confirmed that he had been made to confess to the crime by force and had he not written what he had been told, he, too, would not have come out of the police station alive.

Manukyan was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment, but has not been set free through the Amnesty of 2009, because the prosecutor’s office had changed the charge against him to a harsher one. The political prisoner had requested that the CC declare unconstitutional the 1st and the 2nd parts of article 309.1 of the RA Criminal Code, which allow prosecutors to change accusations as they please. On April 2, 2010, the CC declared unconstitutional the 5th part of the same article. After publicizing the decision, CC President Gagik Harutyunyan announced that, in view of the new circumstances Manukyan might nonetheless appeal to have the verdict be considered null and void. It will soon be clear how much Harutyunyan’s words are worth.

From our cell at the “Nubarashen” penitentiary we have recently been following the news on TV, and the police news on Channel 02. We are waiting for extremely important reports. They should more or less be like this: some masked idiots are standing on the left and right sides of the screen, and there, standing in the middle, is a policeman in the status of a prisoner, with his hands handcuffed, the stars on his shoulder straps somehow faded, his face unshaven, confused, perplexed and miserable. By our calculations, there should have been two such reports in the past weeks. The first report should have covered the arrest and imprisonment of policeman Moris Hayrapetyan of the Charentsavan police station, and the second, the arrest and imprisonment of Ashot Harutyunyan, head of Charentsavan’s Criminal Investigation Department of the same police station. The two, allow me to remind you, are charged with the criminal case of the death of Vahan Khalafyan. The official Armenian broadcasts, however, did not refer to the subject. Yet at the Nubarashen penitentiary I often meet unfortunate citizens whose faces are familiar to me from the “Haylur” reports. I meet a large number of people who have had the distinct honor of appearing on Channel 02. So what does this mean? Are the crimes committed by these people, or ascribed to them, more hazardous to the community than taking the life of an RA citizen at a police station? Had testimonies not been extorted from these people in the same way as from Vahan Khalafyan, which had killed him? Why, then, does the “02” TV program, which is the mouthpiece of the RA police, not refer to the arrest of these so-called policemen? Why doesn’t it read their verdict? Why doesn’t it air a special report to inform the public about their arrests? Is it because RA Police Chief Alik Sargsyan, whose face exude signs of blind fear of the Kyrgyz version, spread false information after Vahan Khalafyan’s murder, insisting that there were no traces of torture on Vahan’s body? If it were the police who gave Alik Sargsyan incorrect information, then he has no right to be chief of police; because it means that he is a weak and faceless official who is being taken in by his own people. If, on the other hand, he received accurate information and tried to mislead the public, then all the more reason for him not to be chief of police because the public is tired of police lies. In this situation, the only honorable thing Alik Sargsyan can do is to resign from his position of chief of police. But, or course, he will do no such thing. For the simple reason that at around the time of Vahan Khalafyan’s death and by a decree of Serzh Sargsyan, Hovhannes Tamamyan, Chief of the Criminal Investigations Division of RA Police, also received a general’s star. Hovik Tamamyan is the official whose office became the last stop in the life of RA citizen Levon Gulyan in 2007.

Nikol Pashinyan
www.nikol.am

P.S. by HZh: Yesterday we telephoned the communication and public information division of the RA Police and asked why the “02” TV program does not continuously show Charentsavan police Moris Hayrapetyan and head of the criminal investigation Ashot Harutyunyan. We were told that we should ask the Special Investigation Services because it is the SIS that is investigating the case. As soon as we get an answer from the SIS, we will let our readers know.

The fact was confirmed by the RA Prosecutor’s Office, which also said that a case had been opened in the Military Prosecutor’s office characterizing the incident as a suicide attempt. They refused to disclose other details, including the lieutenant colonel’s name and surname. On that day, according to our sources in the Military prosecutor’s office, the higher-ranking commander decided to punish the battalion commander for having cursed the Minister of Defense. They tied the battalion commander to a chair and tried to take him to the parade ground in that condition. The plan was that the soldiers would march by, and insult him. To avoid the humiliation, the lieutenant colonel somehow managed to free his hands and, grabbing knife lying nearby, supposedly stabbed himself four times.

What has happened to Vahan Khalafyan at the police station might have happened to any other citizen at any other police station. Let’s admit that we might not have known about Vahan if his relatives had been different types of people. I’m convinced that similar cases have occurred before, but were shut without much fuss, in the old-fashion way. The problem is that what happened is not the result of some shortcomings in a particular police station. Some larger problems predetermine the occurrence of such cases in the RA Police. The first is the illiteracy, utter illiteracy, of the masses in the police and law enforcement agencies in general.

Higher and lower ranking police officers do not know the law which regulates their work, they don’t know that their actions should be guided by law and so they often work according their own image of the police. This situation has even deeper reasons: the police force is often populated by individuals with a variety of psychological problems, for whom the only way to assert themselves is to have a gun and a shoulder strap. They consider the policeman’s work to be a vehicle for holding an advantage over others, for unlimited powers to be used on others, and a license to commit acts not allowed to others. In contemporary Armenia, the policeman’s job falls into the hands of people who have failed to realize their childhood dream of becoming some oligarch’s bodyguard-gofer. And now they vent the bile they accumulated through their failures on the young men who fall into their hands, especially if the young men, unlike themselves, have a sense of self and a backbone. The modern Armenian policeman is the type who feels important and valued if he can get the services of a five thousand-drams-whore for free. It is this possibility that that gives them a sense of confidence about their powers. The next important contributing factor to police brutality is the wide spread illiteracy of the investigators. The contingent of investigators, in large part lacking intellectual abilities, is unable to work with direct material evidences, to analyze the situation; it interrogates witnesses and comes to conclusions on the basis of the testimonies they give.

Yesterday, Ashot Harutyunyan, head of Charentsavan’s Criminal Investigations Department, was charged with extracting confession from the young man under torture, and was arrested.

HRW emphasized that the investigation should reveal all those who are guilty and subject them to the full extent of the law. The letter notes: “Should Armenia fail to prosecute the guilty, it would be in violation of its obligations under the ECHR.” HRW reminded the Prosecutor General of the incident of Levon Gulyan’s death who had fallen out of a third floor window after being taken to the police station, but for which no one has been held responsible to date. “It is of paramount importance to break the cycle of impunity through a rigorous investigation and prosecution of law enforcement officials who have abused the law,” stated HRW.

The misgiving, it should be noted, is not without foundation. The problem is that after putting up posters with the girl’s pictures and telephone numbers throughout the city, a man recently phoned Fliuza Gadelshina and said that he has seen the girl at the railway station in Yerevan. Gadelshina informed the police about it. The police told the mother that they checked the information but that it was false information. But when the mother personally went to the railway station, she discovered that the station police were not even aware that a child was missing and that the police were looking for her.

Khalafyan was taken to the police station in the morning of April 13 and later that day was hospitalized from there with fatal wounds. FIDH reminded the Armenian authorities that this is not the first case when a person is taken to an RA police station and comes out as a corpse. FIDH called on the Armenian authorities “to fully conform to the provisions of the European Convention on the Prevention of Torture and the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” These conventions and states that have agreed to them, such as Armenia, require that officials who have inflicted tortures and behaved inhumanly be brought to trial.

The political prisoner had requested that the outcome of the January 10, 2010 extraordinary Parliamentary elections of the 10th electoral district of Yerevan be considered null and void. After holding a quick session, the CC declared an even “quicker” decision to leave the decision unchanged the January 14 decision of the Electoral Commission of the 10th electoral district to sum up the outcome of the extraordinary Parliamentary elections of January 10. According to that decision, “National Unity” party member and a candidate of the authorities Ara Simonyan had been acknowledged an elected member of parliament.

The photograph shows the “warehouse” from which 24 year-old Vahan Khalafyan of Charentsavan supposedly stole clothing in the value of AMD1.5 million. On April 13 he was taken to the Charentsavan police station on suspicion of theft and later died of the injuries sustained by a knife. While police officials tell fairy-tales about Vahan Khalafyan’s suicide, Carentsavan’s inhabitants, comparing the information they have, give their version of the main reason as to why the 24 year-old young man was tortured and then killed. Accordingly, Vahan was detained so that they could pin the blame on him, and then, to cover up the case, extort money from his parents. The policemen had been sure that out of fear Vahan would ask his not so poor parents to get him out of the trouble at any price. But realizing that their plans had failed and Vahan wasnot about to give in, according to Charentsavan residents, the police resorted to torture, which resulted in Vahan’s death. In an interview with our reporters, Vahan’s mother, Anahit Khalafyan stated that despite everything she is proud of her son’s demeanor, and that even at the cost of his life he did not succumb to police pressure and refused to be blamed for crimes committed by others. “My son maintained his dignity before them (police); he didn’t break down and humiliate himself,” said Vahan’s mother. It is noteworthy that priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church from Charentsvan’s St. Amenaprkich church visited Vahan’s home and performed all the appropriate rites. As it is known, the position of the Armenian Apostolic Church is very firm in such cases; the Church does not perform funeral services for someone who has committed suicide, regardless of the circumstances of suicide. According to Vahan’s relatives, the priests agreed to conduct all the appropriate rites without raising the question of suicide. This leads one to conclude that even the church is certain that Vahan Khalafyan did not commit suicide or that he was killed at the police station—which comes to the same thing.

According to the RA SIS, the arrested individual is police officer Moris Hayrapetyan of the Charentsavan criminal investigations department and is suspected of overstepping his official powers and forcing Vahan Khalafyan to commit suicide. The SIS has also let it be known that examination results of the Vahan Khalafyan’s case are not ready yet. But in an interview with our reporter, Vahan Khalafyan’s relatives stated that besides the arrested police officer, at least one other policeman, a certain Garik, had been in the same room at the time Vahan was stabbed twice and received injuries.