Epress.am News from Armenia
Conscript Rafik Mnatsakanyan was arrested on Oct. 17 In the criminal case launched in connection with the death of his colleague, Yurik Nersisyan, at a military unit in the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. The accused, who served in the same military unit as the deceased, is charged in accordance with Article 359 Section 1 of the RA Criminal Code (“breach of relations between servicemen not subordinated to each other, expressed by humiliating a person’s honor and dignity, or subjecting him to persecution or violence”).
Mnatsakanyan has confessed and admitted his guilt, reports the RA Ministry of Defense investigative service.
On the same day, a motion was made to the RA Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Marz to choose detention as the precautionary measure. The motion was sustained.
Recall, Yurik Gevorg Nersisyan, 19, died while on frontline duty on Oct. 12. Armenia’s defense ministry initially issued a statement in which it stated the official cause of death was suicide.
Note, in the last year or so there have been several high-profile incidents of non-combat deaths in Armenia’s Armed Forces, some of which initially were deemed to be suicides. In these cases, relatives of the deceased soldier have insisted that it was not suicide but murder.