‘Mataghis’ case was suspended upon its admission
12:54, October 13, 2016 | News, Own news
The ‘Mataghis’ case that has received a great public resonance remains in the focus of both the public at large and of HCA Vanadzor.
Over 3 years have passed after the RA Court of Cassation upheld the acquittal judgment of the military servicemen charged with the murder of their 2 fellow servicemen, but no official statement has been made on the preliminary investigation into the case.
In response to the next-in-turn inquiry by HCA Vanadzor of September 10, 2016 on the conducted investigative activities, brought charges and the accused, the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office stated in its letter of September 28, 2016, that the criminal proceedings had been suspended back on September 2, 2013 on the grounds that the persons to be involved in the case as accused were not identified.
Moreover, in response to a similar inquiry submitted by HCA Vanadzor in 2014, the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office stated that on September 2, 2013 the criminal case was admitted into proceedings by G. Grigoryan, Deputy Head of the 10th Garrison Investigative Division of the RA MoD Investigative Services and its preliminary investigation was in progress.
As it follows from the recent response, on the very day of admitting the criminal case it was decided to suspend it, but interestingly, the response to the inquiry sent 2 years ago contained no mention of suspending the case.
In fact, the section on carrying out procedural and investigative actions and questioning “numerous witnesses” is identically repeated in the both responses of the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office.
Despite the procedural and investigative actions taken and the claims of the Prosecutor’s Office on questioning of witnesses, we can say that there has been no significant progress in this case investigated for years. The competent agencies take no measures to solve the crime.
It should be added that on March 17, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights made a judgment on Zalyan and Others v. Republic of Armenia and recognized the violations of the rights under Articles 3 (Prohibition of Torture) and 5 (Right to liberty and security of person) of the ECHR.