Case closed: incorrectly
The investigation into the death of Private Haroutyun Hambaryan, a soldier of NK Defense Army unit number 49971, has come to an end since the investigative body decided to not pursue anyone else in relationship to his death. The case has therefore been officially classified as a suicide, however the family and others believe that he was in fact murdered
Haroutyun’s family along with Peace Dialogue’s military expert Ruben Martirosyan do not agree with the official version of their son’s death. His father Hrair Hambaryan turned to Peace Dialogue NGO for support and assistance in the preliminary investigation and trial of the case. With the assistance of the organization’s expert criminologist, the father submitted a complaint to the Acting Head of the Investigative Department of the N 3 garrison; to the Military Prosecutor of garrison N, the prosecutor who supervised the preliminary investigation and to the RA Military prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor.
The complaint states that the shortcomings and contradictions of the case do not prove that Haroutyun did not commit suicide and that he was in fact murdered and that the decision to: “Not conduct a criminal prosecution” was made as a result of the failure to conduct a comprehensive and objective investigation of the case. In addition, the complaint states that it is obvious that the investigating body is biased and that a number of significant facts show that they failed to take a number of investigative and judicial actions.
Based on this, the complaint emphasized the importance of more comprehensive and objective investigations, and requests that the criminal case be returned to the preliminary investigative body and the investigative body of criminal must be instructed to comply with the investigative and procedural actions brought up in the afore mentioned petition.
Posted 17 June, 2016
