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The criminal case, which was being heard at the RA SIS, initiated over the shocking incident near Yerevan “Garegin Nzhdeh” Metro Station on June 15, 2011 regarding the legality of police officials who fired a fatal gunshot at 30-year-old Arman Yengibaryan, was closed.

Yesterday, SIS interrogator Gevorg Gevorgyan notified us that the preliminary investigation revealed the legality of the Police official’s actions. “The Police official’s actions were determined to be lawful as of this date; however, the criminal part of the case concerning the robbery assaults was sent to Yerevan Investigation Department of the RA Police to be tried there in line with other cases.”

The police official fired two gunshots at Yengibaryan near the metro station entrance (in a crowded place) from his “Makarov” official firearm. According to the police version, Arman Yengibaryan had carried out numerous robbery assaults and on June 15th he attempted to break into one of the apartment on Bagratunyats Street. According to the official report, the police official, who callously shot Yengibaryan, should not incur liability for his unlawful action.

Yesterday, before receiving information on closing the case, I visited the Arabkir Police Department to have a discussion with the police official, who shot Arman Yengibaryan, and whose personal information is kept confidential by the police to ensure “his personal safety”.

He was previously reported to be working at Arabkir Police Department; however, we failed to find him there. Instead, we talked with the Arabkir Police Chief and he stated he was against our attempt to interview the police official. “The investigation is underway, and the information can be obtained only from the police press. I repeat myself that the police official did not commit a crime and he carried out his official duty with honor. You will see as he will be given an award for it”.

According to the Arabkir Police Chief, only the Department of Public Relations and Information of the RA Police is entitled to give permission to interview a police official. “Let them give the permission to do it”, noted the Chief.  We followed Mehrabyan’s advice and visited the Department of Public Relations and Information of the RA Police. The head of the department, Ashot Aharonyan, told us that the SIS was conducting the preliminary investigation and the police official could not be interviewed until the investigation was concluded. At the same time, we received a response to our request sent to the Department of Public Relations and Information of RA Police from Aharonyan. We requested information on:  how many people were killed by police officials during the last year, how many citizens got injured as a result of gunshot wounds, how many police officials were injured during the implementation of official duties, and how many police officials were killed during the implementation of official duties? Aharonyan responded that during 2011, two suspects were neutralized as a result of gunshots fired by the RA Police official during implementation of his official duties. From 2010 and through the beginning of 2011, 55 cases of violations exerted against police officials were recorded during which a number of police officials received physical injuries. No police officials were killed during the implementation of their official duties within that same time period.

In Aharonyan’s own words, our first question on “how many people were killed by police officials was not accurately framed, as it is appropriate to say people are “neutralized” and not killed by police officials”.  As to the two cases of “neutralization” stated in the response, according to Aharonyan, one of them was Arman Yengibaryan’s case and the second case related to a March 29th case, when Senior Sergeant Mikael Hovsepyan, the duty police officer of “Yunibank” Nork-Marash branch shot a bank robber, Police Captain Artur Hakobyan, the Chief of the Protection Department adjacent to Nor Nork Police Department.

www.armtimes.com