Epress.am News from Armenia
The cadets of the Yerevan Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute who killed fellow serviceman Haykaz Barseghyan on January 29, 2015 acted with “extreme cruelty;” they covered Barseghyan's mouth and immobilized him to stop the victim from calling for help, Pastinfo.am reported on Wednesday, citing the results of the preliminary investigation.
“There was an attempt to imitate suicide. While [Barseghyan] was in bed, a few other soldiers held him from his arms and legs, covered his mouth, depriving him of the chance to call for help. They used a sharp cutting tool to cut the vein on his right forearm, followed by blows to the cadet's face and chest. Then, they grabbed him by the neck, breaking the victim's hyoid bone. Afterwards, the murderers dressed Barseghyan and took him to the Institute's sports ground, where Haykaz Baresghyan, who had already died as a result of these brutal actions, was hanged from the chin-up bar,” the website writes.
In an earlier conversation with Epress.am, the victim's father, Arkady Barseghyan, said he ruled out the possibility of his son to have committed suicide, despite the fact that the preliminary investigation had found a suicide note at the crime scene in which the cadet urged his relatives not to “blame anyone for my death.”
Four cadets of the same military institute, Vache Sahakyan, Movses Azaryan, Gnel Tevosyan, and Norik Sahakyan, were arrested on murder charges. Later Captain Artyom Avetisyan, an officer at the Vazgen Sargsyan Military Institute, was arrested and charged with abuse of power, transgression of authority or administrative dereliction.
Gnel Tevosyan is the son of Colonel Zarmik Markosyan, former Deputy Chief of the Institute's Armaments department.