The Border Patrol Chief and the former Chief of Staff were questioned with regard to the case of inciting the serviceman to commit suicide
13:22, June 28, 2018 | News, Own news
On June 28, 2018, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Region heard Border Patrol Chief Hayk Vardevanyan and former Chief of Staff Andranik Karapetyan, who were involved as witnesses in the case of inciting serviceman Gevorg Khachatryan to suicide.
They were involved as witnesses on the basis of the motion filed by K. Barseghyan, the defender of H. Muradyan and M. Voskanyan.
The defendants and their defenders, S. Khachatryan (the accuser), Hasmik Avetisyan (the legal successor of the victim) and her representative Tatevik Siradeghyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor’s representative office in Yerevan, were present at the court session.
In response to the questions of the parties and the court, Andranik Karapetyan, said that he had been unaware of the officers farming pigs; the procedure does not provide for involvement of soldiers in such work; however, each soldier makes their own decision on whether to provide help or not. A. Karapetyan mentioned that playing cards is also prohibited.
H. Vardevanyan stated that all the officers of the military unit owned pigs; however, they fed the pigs themselves, and the soldiers did not participate in that. According to him, the relationship between defendant H. Muradyan and the late G. Khachatryan was friendly. He did not recall any other details but stated that the testimonies given during the preliminary investigation were correct.
Defender K. Barseghyan filed a motion to question investigator H. Hayrapetyan and Head of the Investigation Department G. Khalatyan as well. The accuser objected, and the Court rejected the motion.
Afterwards, the defender challenged the Court, stating that the Court had a biased attitude.
The same occurred in the case of these motions as well. The Court rejected them.
The stage of court debates commenced.
The accuser S. Khachatryan’s speech for the prosecution was interrupted due to the end of the working day.
The next court session is set to be held on July 19.
It should be recalled that in one of the military units of the Border Troops of the RA National Security Service, G. Khachatryan died of a gunshot injury on November 28, 2015. On the following day, a criminal case was initiated on the ground of incitement to suicide.
Charges were brought against those serving alongside him and his superiors for breach of rules governing relations between service personnel (under Article 359 § 2 of the RA Criminal Code), for abuse of power, transgression of authority or administrative dereliction (under Article 375 § 1) as well as for insulting a serviceman (under Article 360 of the RA Criminal Code) and organization of and participation in gambling games by servicemen (Article 364.1 of the RA Criminal Code).