Epress.am News from Armenia
The injured party does not believe the soldier committed suicide. The case of Sargis Sahakyan, 19, who died in November 2012, will be re-examined.
At the hearing of the case of soldier Sargis Sahakyan in the Syunik District Court of First Instance on Friday, Sahakyan's legal successor's representative, Syuzanna Khcheyan, motioned for a new autopsy, which Judge Napoleon Ohanyan granted. According to the official report, Sahakyan committed suicide.
The aggrieved party substantiated its motion with the fact that the previous autopsy cannot prove Sahakyan's "suicide," since, according to forensics, the victim's fingerprints were not found on the weapon that the official report claims was used to kill himself, and there were no traces of gunpowder under his fingernails or on his clothes.
The conclusion, according to Khcheyan, cannot be considered reliable also because the investigator did not provide the medical examiner with the written report and photographs of the place of the incident, as well as the report of the examination of the body and the corresponding photographs.
The attorney informed Epress.am that the answers provided by the those who gave the expert conclusion did not satisfy the injured party's doubts; thus, a new autopsy was appointed.
According to the official report, Sargis Sahakyan committed suicide after his fellow servicemen in the military unit cursed and humiliated him, for not sharing the food he received from his family. Artur Misakyan and Artashes Khachatryan, accused of inciting Sahakyan to suicide, deny their guilt.
Both Misakyan and the 6 other witnesses named in the case have retracted the testimonies they gave during the preliminary investigation. They claim that they gave false testimonies because they were subjected to violence by military police; they were held in custody for nearly one month and forced to write that Sargis ate the food alone, so they insulted him, which resulted in Sargis killing himself.
Material has been prepared in the matter of putting pressure on the witnesses and the accused, but a motion to open a criminal case on this basis was overruled in today's court session.