ECtHR to examine as soon as possible the complaint on serviceman G. Khachatryan’s death
11:37, May 25, 2017 | News, Own news | Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
A complaint was filed with the European Court of Human Rights on the case of Grisha Khachatryan who died at an RA Ministry of Defense military unit on June 20, 2014.
Note that the criminal proceedings initiated on the incident were discontinued on June 20, 2015 for lack of elements of crime. And the complaints on stopping violations of the rights of victim G. Khachatryan and sending the case for additional preliminary investigation were rejected both by the Prosecutor’s Office and by the first instance court and court of appeals.
After getting the ruling of the Court of Appeals of April 20, 2016, Tatevik Siradeghyan, representative of G. Khachatryan’s successor and lawyer at Yerevan Office of HCA Vanadzor, submitted an appeal to the Cassation Court as well. The Cassation Court did not accept it.
The complaint filed with the ECtHR by A. Zalyan, representative of G. Khachatryan’s successor and lawyer at HCA Vanadzor, is based on Article 2 (Right to life) and Article 13 (Right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The complaint highlights that the version put forward by the investigative body, according to which G. Khachatryan died form the shots made due to breaking the weapon handling rules gives grounds to argue that such rules were not properly explained to him, which resulted from weak control by the commanders of the military unit over the staff. Despite this, none of the commanders of the military unit faced criminal prosecution. The state did not carry out independent and effective investigation to identify those guilty and impose on them adequate punishment.
Moreover, there were no opportunities of proper medical aid either on the combat position where the incident occurred, or in its adjacent area which made it impossible to provide G. Khachatryan with first aid. Thus, the state failed in its obligation to protect the life and health of the persons under its jurisdiction.
The European Court of Human Rights confirmed receipt of the application and will examine it as soon as possible.