Serious questions arise during trial on the unexplained death of Manuchar Manucharyan
On April 16, 2015 another hearing was held concerning the unexplained death of Manuchar Manucharyan while he was serving in the army. This phase of the trial was particularly noteworthy due to the fact that there is only one material witness in the case Libik Mkrtchyan from the town of Agarak. Based on the testimonies of this witness the preliminary investigative body managed to present the murder as a suicide and arrested two people for the crime. The defendants, Arman Stepanyan and Babken Gaboyan have been charged with driving Manuchar Manucharyan to commit suicide. However, it must be noted that during the preliminary investigation Libik Mkrtchyan was accused of giving false testimony by Ruben Martirosyan a military expert working with Peace Dialogue and a representative of the victim’s brother.
Ruben Martirosyan gave an extensive statement about the credibility of the primary witness Mr. Libik Mkrtchyan. Mr. Martirosyan’s comments involved irregularities in both the written and oral testimony of Mr. Mkrtchyan as well as significant questions about the professional testimony by the psychologist and medical expert Ms. Elda Grin. In addition, he raised questions of the ability of the MoD to understand and control the unit in which Mr. Manucharyan served.
The complete transcript of Mr. Martirosyan’s are available in the Armenian version.
Posted 27 April, 2015
