The European Court of Human Rights submitted questions on the case of the deceased military serviceman: RA Government will answer them by March 20, 2017
11:12, December 27, 2016 | News, Own news | Right to an Effective Remedy of Legal Protection, Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to Fair Trial, Right to Life, Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces
Following the complaint submitted with the support of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, the European Court of Human Rights submitted its questions to the Parties on the case of NKR Defense Army conscript soldier Tigran Varyan’s death.
The victim’s successor and his representative filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights under Article 6 (Right to a fair trial), Article 2 (Right to life), Article 13 (Right to an effective legal remedy) and Article 3 (Prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Within the meaning of Article 6 of the ECHR, the aggrieved party pointed to the fact that the court responsible for the examination of the case was not established by law; the case was examined by the General Jurisdiction Court of RA Syunik marz (region) in NKR city of Stepanakert, whereas Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was not covered within the administrative area under the jurisdiction of that court. The complaint invoked the state’s positive obligation on T. Varyan’s life and health within the meaning of Article 2 of the ECHR and failure to carry out an effective investigation into the death circumstances within the meaning of Article 13, which did not lead to identification of the perpetrators and adequate punishment.
And the complaint read within the meaning of Article 3 of the ECHR that the military serviceman suffered torture and degrading treatment.
The European Court of Human Rights admitted the complaint on the ground of the violations of Articles 2 and 13 of the ECHR and submitted questions to the RA Government on fulfillment by the state of its positive obligations on the life of the serviceman and the efficiency of the investigation into T. Varyan’s death.
The RA Government has to answer the questions by March 20, 2017.
The law-enforcement officers qualified the death dating back over 4 years ago as suicide and platoon commander Hovhannes Hakobyan and fellow servicemen Gevorg Manukyan and Erik Sargsyan were sentenced to imprisonment of 4 years and 6 months and 4 months, respectively.
The appeal of Artur Sakunts, representative of the victim’s successor and Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, against the judgment before the Court of Appeals was rejected, and the Court of Cassation refused to admit the appeal on the pretext that the lower courts did not violate either the substantive or procedural law.