Cried and stated “It’s the end, we’ll never meet again’’
00:00, November 12, 2010 | News | Detention Facilities
Slavik Voskanyan was arrested on October 7, he was charged with murdering Svetlana Kazazyan and committing an assault against Astghik Aghabekyan.
On October 24 he died at the detention place in suspicious conditions: he had injected himself spit and died of foot gangrene. Before his death he managed to send a letter to Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, where he told about psychological pressure and threats exerted towards him at the police department. We had a meeting with dead Slavik Voskanyan’s wife-Shushanik Oskanyan-who conveyed detailed information on what had happened after her husband’s arrest.
The first meeting was held in the cabinet of the head of police, everything went on normally, at first my husband was in good mood, he was still hoping for something, so I told him: “I know you have not committed the crime” and he replied that I was right he hadn’t committed it. “He could not have done it, since he was at home during the time the crime was committed that day, he was just in front of my eyes during all that time. He confessed that he had committed the assault in Halabyan Street. He said “I have done it”, however when he had a meeting with Sakunts, he conveyed that he had grasped the woman’s handbag but hadn’t done any harm to her.
That day, he left home very late with his friend and never came back again. The following morning we were told that he had been caught in an internet club, at first we didn’t understand why he had been caught, because it was all very unexpected – murder and assault at the same time. He was psychologically healthy, but was deeply absorbed in internet. During the next meeting he seemed excited but was trying to hide it not to lead us into despair or he hoped for something. At the third interrogation, when he was being taken to jail, he cried saying “it is the end, I will not be back, and we’ll never meet again”. He told me directly” I was threatened, that is why I took the blame on me.”
After that I submitted a written complaint to the prosecutor because the investigators were putting pressure on me by claiming that I would be deprived of parental rights, and that by the time I reached home, my children might have been taken to the children’s home”. They said that I was hiding the crime, that I was an accessory, that they would be imprisoned for some two years, and that after freedom I could see my children only in the children’s home. I was in the police department from 7 p.m. till 4 a.m. on October 12. While giving a testimony, I was saying everything as it was, but they did not believe me.
When my husband called he said he was very bad, his leg was in an extremely bad condition, he couldn’t walk, I was being carried to the restroom and back on hands. He said that the prosecutor came and saw him and said nobody would take him to the penitentiary hospital for convicts. My husband asked me to do something, he said he felt terribly bad. And that they had just made up everything, and that they were hiding the one who was really guilty, or maybe it was beneficial to them to find someone poor and put the blame on him. This would enable them to get promotion and the case would not remain closed.
He injected something into his leg, he did it to get rid of that jail and go to the penitentiary hospital for convicts, where he had some acquaintances and would be able live there, he would not commit a suicide, he was not a man of such nature. He loved life and he would never do such a thing. He would not simply do it, at least for the sake of his children. He was a constructor by profession. He could not find a job in Armenia, and intended to leave for Russia, he was waiting for a call.
When I asked my husband why he had confessed in front of a “02” police program camera, he replied he had been listening to those words for three days and I had to learn the words of crime by heart. Then he was told if he didn’t admit the crime, he would be run over by the approaching car and they would announce that the criminal was trying to escape and the car ran over him. He was convicted several times before: the first time when he was a juvenile and was charged with robbery, the second time somebody was killed with his weapon, and the third time as if he had stabbed the head of the passport-desk agency with a knife. But as far as I understand, every time he admitted that he had committed the crimes committed by others and served a sentence instead of them.
I told the investigator that if my husband was at home, how could I say he was not there. Had he committed a crime, first he would have got drunk, would get nervous, but he was very calm when he returned home, he was in normal mood, a murderer could not pretend to be calm”.
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