Witness Describes How He was Beaten by Armenian Police

Armen Hayrapetyan, who was sentenced on Nov. 15, 2008, to 15 years in prison, told the court that in his testimony he wrote the name of another person, as he was beaten repeatedly by the police.

Andranik Gasparyan is accused of — reaching an agreement with his friend Armen Hayrapetyan — in January 2008 tricking Kristine Manukyan to accompany them to an uninhabited part of the road leading to the horticultural company in Erebuni, after which they robbed Manukyan, stealing her gold jewellry and mobile phone. Hayrapetyan was sentenced to 15 years for the rape and murder of Kristine Manukyan , now the Court of First Instance of Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative Districts (presided over by Judge Artush Gabrielyan) is examining Gasparyan's involvement in the crime. 

On March 6, Hayrapetyan was called in to court and questioned as a witness. He said that the testimony he gave during the preliminary investigation and the one he gave in court contradict each other because during the preliminary investigation he was beaten by police and forced to write that Andranik was with him during the murder. 

As reported by the Yerevan-based Helsinki Association for Human Rights, Prosecutor V. Hovhannisyan mocked the witness, for example, by asking, "Were you crying when they beat you?"

Hayrpetyan said he was beaten on several occasions: "They beat me so much that I even wanted to harm myself. I did what they wanted. In short, it came to the point that I said write whatever you want; they were hitting my legs, my kidneys… I didn't have an attorney. The investigator said, 'A defender's coming now. Once he comes, you'll refuse the [services of a] defender'."

"In response to the witness' statement that police officers are capable of anything, out of fear he wrote what they asked of him.The judge said that he knows that the police are capable of anything, that's accepted in practice, and, openly deeming Hayrapetyan's testimonies unreliable, urged the witness to give a testimony that's closer to the truth," according to the Helsinki Association website [AM].