Husband Who Abused, Murdered his Wife Gets 10 Years in Jail, While His Mother Gets Custody of Child

Relatives of the late Zaruhi Petrosyan, 20, are not preparing to protest Friday’s Court of General Jurisdiction of Ararat and Vayots Dzor Marzes’ ruling which sentenced Zaruhi’s husband, Yanis Sarkisov, to 10 years’ imprisonment for the murder of his wife (who died on Oct. 1, 2010). As it stands, 10 years is the maximum penalty for such crimes in Armenia. This news was conveyed to Epress.am on Saturday by Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women in Armenia coordinator Gayane Harutyunyan.

Yanis Sarkisov was arrested and charged in accordance with Article 112 Section 2 Point 14 of Armenia’s Criminal Code (“infliction of willful heavy damage to health which caused the death of the aggrieved by negligence”).

As for custody of Zaruhi’s two-year-old daughter, guardianship was transferred to Sarkisov’s mother, who, incidentally, was also a perpetrator of violence and abuse against Zaruhi, according to claims by Zaruhi’s family and human rights campaigners.

“Zaruhi’s sister and her [i.e. the sister’s] mother-in-law appealed in the city of Masis with a request for custody of the child when Zaruhi’s husband, Yanis Sarkisov, had not yet acknowledged paternity. In Masis, they were both refused on grounds of a lack of adequate living conditions. However, later, Yanis decided to acknowledge paternity and presented a trust deed for his mother to become guardian of the child. During this time, the child was in Yerevan’s Nork-Marash administrative district children’s home. And suddenly Yanis’ father, Alexander Sarkisov, appears, goes home in the city of Yerevan and they appeal to the Nork-Marash administrative district custody and guardianship commission with a request for custody, which was granted,” she said.

Harutyunyan informed Epress.am that only after meeting with the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women in Armenia did the commission find out that Yanis Sarkisov is being accused in the murder of his wife.

“They told us that they didn’t know anything about this case; they didn’t know,” she said, adding that they sent letters to the custody and guardianship commission to keep an eye on the child, her living conditions and health issues.

“We also contacted the child protection network [a national network of NGOs to protect children’s rights] in Armenia so they [too] keep an eye on the child. But we have not yet received a response,” she said.