Another attempt to cover up a crime
12:58, April 19, 2016 | News, Own news | Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to Fair TrialOn March 16, 2016, G. Mikayelyan from Yerevan consulted the Representation Office of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor in Yerevan. He stated that in order to prepare a remedy for his wife R. Avagyan, he came to an arrangement with I. Sargsyan, an employee at military unit N of the RA Defense Ministry, on purchasing 1 ton of distilled oil for 4000 USD. However, the latter did not provide the distilled oil. Based on the crime report of the incident, the 4th Garrison Investigation Division of the Military Criminal Cases Department of the RA Investigative Committee initiated criminal proceedings.
In November 2014, G. Mikayelyan and R. Avagyan were summoned to the Investigation Division and despite the intimidations on the part of investigator A. Asatryan to the effect that the persons who submitted the crime report might also face negative consequences, they presented in their explanations what had really happened. Based on these and other illegal actions of the investigator, R. Avagyan challenged him, and the case passed to investigator B. Harutyunyan.
According to G. Mikayelyan’s application, investigator B. Harutyunyan first refused to examine the case and then he and his supervisor attempted to threaten and force G. Mikayelyan “to write in his testimony whatever they told him.”
According to the information provided by the applicant, similar actions and threats continued later as well.
According to G. Mikayelyan’s application, in May of 2015, their district police officer tried to transport him by deception to the military investigation division; upon learning about it, G. Mikayelyan threw himself out of the vehicle.
G. Mikayelyan also said that he had first attempted to resolve the issue by turning to V. Aghasyan, Head of the 4th Garrison Division, whom he had known previously; however, the latter suggested him turning to S. Sianosyan, Commander of the military unit, who had not helped G. Mikayelyan either.
G. Mikayelyan reported the illegal actions above in an application submitted to the RA General Prosecutor’s Office and the RA Investigative Committee; as a result, the proceedings passed first to investigator Tatoyan and then to investigator S. Sargsyan. The latter repeatedly tried to threaten G. Mikayelyan and make him take the 2000 USD left for him by I. Sargsyan since “anyway, the proceedings would be discontinued.” G. Mikayelyan rejected the investigator’s suggestion, and afterwards, on March 5, 2016, received a decree on discontinuing the criminal proceedings.
Based on G. Mikayelyan’s application, on March 22, 2016, HCA Vanadzor submitted a letter to RA Prosecutor General G. Kostanyan on conducting relevant investigation into the facts presented by G. Mikayelyan and on initiating criminal proceedings in case of revealing any signs of the alleged crime and restoring the violated rights of G. Mikayelyan.
No written answer to the letter above has been received so far. In response to the phone calls by a staff member of the Organization, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office stated that the case had been submitted to the RA Military Prosecutor’s Office and from there we learnt that the case was at the General Military Investigation Department.