Prosecutor Asks for 4 Years’ Imprisonment for Former Police General Accused of Abusing Power

State prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan at the trial of former head of the RA Police General Department of Criminal Intelligence Hovhannes Tamamyan at a Yerevan district court today motioned to imprison Tamamyan for 4 years followed by a two-year period during which he would be prohibited from obtaining an official position at the state or local level.

Recall, Tamamyan was arrested late March 2011 on on charges of abuse of power and has since been kept under arrest pending trial. He is accused of deliberately mishandling a police investigation into the May 12, 2010 murder of 23-year-old Khachik Mkrtchyan. As reported by RFE/RL’s Armenian service, prosecutors say police investigators overseen by Tamamyan deliberately failed to prosecute the murder perpetrator and charged another individual instead, presumably in return for a massive kickback. Tamamyan is also charged on similar accounts in another case, in which he failed to prosecute Aram and Arthur Martirosyans for the attempted murder of Hakob and Hovsep Hovhannisyans and Spartak Zargaradoghyan in Nov. 2009 in Gavar.

Since the accused has admitted his guilt and the case was examined in court via an accelerated procedure, Tamamyan cannot be assigned a stricter punishment than two-thirds of the strictest punishment defined in the RA Criminal Code article for which he is being charged. Since he is charged with Article 308 Section 1 (“abuse of official authority”), which is punishable by imprisonment for up to 6 years, the prosecutor in this case is thereby asking for the maximum punishment.

The other two men accused in the case, police officers Armen Poghosyan and Vahan Khanzadyan, are charged with a lesser crime (also RA Criminal Code Article 308 but Section 2), and for them, the prosecutor is asking for 2.6 years in prison and two years of not being permitted to hold a state position.

In making these motions, the prosecution considered that none of the three accused have a previous conviction, they were repeatedly encouraged, and both Tamamyan and Poghosyan each have a single child under the age of 18 under their care, while Khanzadyan has two.

Tamamyan’s defense attorney asked the court for time to prepare his materials. The court granted his request and assigned the next court date for Mar. 23 at 4 pm.

Hovhannes Tamamyan refused to speak to reporters following today’s session.