HCA Vanadzor filed with RA Prosecutor General’s Office report on initiating criminal proceedings on Gor Hakobyan’s death
17:17, September 13, 2017 | News, Own news
On August 29, 2017, the media outlets spread information that the police rendered harmless Gor Hakobyan, the man who took hostage a young woman at ‘Weekend’ non-functioning billiard club at 15/6, Rostovyan St., c. Yerevan.
In its publication entitled: “Keeping a knife at a young woman’s throat, he demanded to invite 5 civilians and an attorney”, aravot.am news website referred to the RA Investigative Committee and mentioned that the RA Police officers inflicted on him through a special action a gunshot wound incompatible with life.
On the same day, armtimes.com news website published a video from the scene clearly showing that not 1 but rather 2 shots were made to render Gor Hagobyan harmless.
However, as we learnt from the said publication by aravot.am news website, the RA Investigative Committee initiated criminal proceedings only on the incident of taking hostage and no information was provided on initiating any criminal proceedings on Gor Hakobyan’s death.
On September 11, 2017 HCA Vanadzor filed a crime report with the RA Prosecutor General’s Office on initiating criminal proceedings on Gor Hakobyan’s death caused by the law enforcement bodies’ actions and giving a legal assessment to such actions under the proceedings.
Also, the crime report demanded that the questions below were answered: did the persons negotiating with Gor Hakobyan have relevant skills? Why didn’t they meet Gor Hakobyan’s demands? Who decided that the negotiations were useless and the threat to the hostage’s life was real and who ordered to render him harmless by a sniper? What part of the body was hurt by the sniper’s shot and what were its consequences? And finally, was there any order for the second shot and who made the shot? What was the purpose of the shot?
HCA Vanadzor stressed that failure to investigate Gor Hakobyan’s death was a violation of the right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights and investigating it under the criminal proceedings on taking hostage contradicted the provisions of the RA Criminal Procedure Code as his death was caused by police actions and the case should be investigated by the RA Special Investigation Service.