Russian Side Holds Important Evidence on Gyumri Massacre Case, Says Lawyer

There are important pieces of evidence held by the Russian side in the controversial Avetisyan family murder case and it is still unclear how the Armenian side could examine them, representative of the Avetisyans' successors, Lusine Sahakyan, said during a press conference today. 

Sahakyan explained that, for example, the Armenian side is unaware of what kind of clothes the suspect, 102-nd military base soldier Valery Permyakov was wearing and what type of cell phones were found on him when he was arrested. If an examination revealed that they had belonged to the Avetisyans then it would prove that Permyakov was at the Avetisyans' house. 

When aksed by Epress.am's reporter as to what type of legal norms were available to demand the criminal case’s evidence especially when they are used in parallel in another criminal case of different state, Lusine Sahakyan responded; “The issue is that for some reason Permyakov was caught by the Russian side. There are two different criminal cases, two charges. Moreover, the Russian side did not have the right to implement a murder charge. I don’t know what the Armenian police were doing at that time. If they were conducting a grand operation then Permyakov would be under our custody. No lawyer can tell you that ‘this is the solution.’ Both these criminal cases have begun with violations, therefore there is no solution.”

Lawyer Yervand Varosyan informed that the forensic ballistic examination has revealed that all 28 fired cartridges found at the Avetisyans' house belonged to Valery Permyakov’s service weapon.

“Such guns have barrels which leave certain patterns on bullets upon firing. Basically, the bullets and the cartridges have similar patterns from the gun. Just like how one can prove one’s identity through fingerprints, the same is true about firearms,” Varosyan said.

Another lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, stated that according to the forensic biological examination, the sweat on the clothes found at the Avetisyans' house with stitches of Permyakov’s name matched the family of Permyakov’s sweat. The four hairs on the clothes could belong to individuals with Permyakov’s blood group. Only the DNA examination would confirm 100% that those belong to Permyakov. The side is waiting for another, tracelogicial examination results which would reveal wheter the firearm had a silencer.

Six members of the Avetisyan family were murdered on January 12 in their Gyumri home. The family’s seventh member, 6-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan, who had serious injuries, was transferred to the hospital and died 7 days later. Russian soldier Valery Permyakov is the central murder suspect of the case and was arrested on January 13th near the Armenian-Turkish border and was handed over to the Russian military base by Russian border guards. The latter stimulated a protest of thousands of people in Gyumri demanding his transfer to Armenian law enforcement. 

Photo: The Gates of Avetisyans' House