Father of Killed Armenian Soldier to Appeal to European Court of Human Rights

The Court of Cassation struck down the appeal by Artur Sakunts, representing Vano Varyan, the father of army conscript Tigran Varyan who died in March 2012. The aggrieved party is now preparing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, as it was unable to achieve justice in Armenia.

In its appeal, head of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly – Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts was asking that the court annul the appeals court Oct. 28, 2013 ruling and send the case to the same court to be examined by new judicial staff. The Court of Appeal sustained the lower court's Aug. 6, 2013 ruling, which found Hovhannes Hakobyan, Gevorg Manukyan, and Erik Sargsyan guilty of causing fellow soldier, Tigran Varyan, to commit suicide. Hakobyan was sentenced to 4.5 years and Sargsyan and Manukyan were sentenced to 4 months each in prison. Back in the initial court, Sakunts had mentioned that the initial claim of suicide was substantiated in neither the preliminary nor judicial examination, and the possibility that Varyan's death was murder was not considered at all.  

Note, immediately after the soldier's death, Helsinki Association for Human Rights representative, military expert Ruben Martirosyan had said that the theory of suicide was not credible. He was present during Varyan's autopsy, after which he informed Epress.am that there were various injuries on different parts of the soldier's face, which were incurred shortly before his death from the use of a blunt object.

The military expert said that after the autopsy he wrote in the conclusion that it's impossible that such injuries were inflicted by Varyan's own hand. He said that the military doctor, Dr. Sevoyan, who was present at the examination, agreed with this view. 

"We can assume that the beating was followed by a shot; that is, suicide is ruled out. This is premeditated murder. They should have written in the protocol: homicide under unspecified circumstances caused by gunshot injury. Calling the incident suicide in the preliminary version is a crime," said Martirosyan.