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Deceased Soldier’s Father Claims Investigation ‘Has No Intention of Punishing Murderers’

Hrayr Hambaryan, father and legal successor of 20-year-old Harutyun Hambaryan who died in May, 2015 at an army base in Nagorno-Karabakh, has filed a motion for recusal of the military prosecutor, investigators, as well as the Head of the investigative body. The deceased conscript's father justified his decision by claiming that the Third Garrison Investigative Unit of General Military Investigative Department is carrying out a “one-sided investigation and doing its best to validate a version that Harutyun committed suicide.”

Note, a criminal case has been initiated pursuant to the Part 1 of the Article 110 of RA Criminal Code and Harutyun Hambaryan's fellow serviceman, Davit Harutyunyan, has been arrested on charges for inciting suicide. The aggrieved party, however, does not believe in Hambaryan's suicide and is convinced the conscript was murdered. 

In a conversation with Epress.am, Hrayr Hambaryan's representative, “Peace Dialogue” NGO expert Ruben Martirosyan said “a record has been set” in the investigation of this case: it's been six months and they still haven't been given the ballistics test results or the findings of the examination of the victim's clothing. The findings of these tests, he stressed, are usually provided within 25 days, maximum two months.

Martirosyan added that the gunshot injury was in the top central part of Harutyun's head, and he couldn't have inflicted such wounds on himself. “Those who want to commit suicide with a rifle usually shoot themselves in the mouth or under the chin.”

In the recusal motion, Hrayr Hambaryan has presented a series of facts which, as stated by the father, have been neglected by the investigation: “According to conscript Davit Harutyunyan's testimony, some time before the murder my son had gotten into a serious dispute with at least two fellow soldiers – Hovhannes Melkonyan and Smbat Hayrapetyan – during which he stabbed Hayrapetyan. The investigative body has been seeking to disregard this important fact which is why Smbat Hayrapetyan was subjected to forensic examination only after persistent demands by Davit Harutyunyan's lawyer. According to expert conclusion N 387, examination found numerous wounds on Hayrapetyan's right and left hands, including cut wounds produced by sharp-edged objects, some of which could have been inflicted a few days before the murder, or on the day of the murder. Despite this blatant fact, investigators and prosecutors do not acknowledge the activities of this criminal gang nor do they see the link between these actions and my son's murder. Basically, my son gave the criminal gang a fitting rebuff, protecting himself and his honor.

“The extenuating circumstances in the case are also unclear. Investigator N. Avetisyan writes that in his testimony defendant Davit Harutyunyan said that Junior Sergeant Hovhannes Melkumyan had told him Harutyun Hambaryan had gotten into an argument with [Melkumyan] during which Hambaryan brandished a knife and inflicted cuts on Smbat Hayrapetyan. So the question then arises as to why Harutyun wounded Smbat if he was arguing with Hovhannes. Therefore, there were not two, but 5-6 people involved in the quarrel.

“However, as stated by the same investigator, Smbat Hayrapetyan claims he did not argue with Harutyun and did not receive any knife injuries. How can his testimony be trusted when Smbat's hands resemble a world map; he has bruises, cut wounds produced at three different times.

“My son was very strong and brave; he would have never let some fiend raise a hand against him. This is evidenced by the fact that in January, 2015, my son told his sister, Hasmik, that he had had a conflict with a group of soldiers who wanted to pressure him. He also said that he had managed to come out the winner and avoid serious problems. 

“Undoubtedly, this was the beginning of the periodic clashes, which eventually led to my son's murder. However, the preliminary investigation body does not want to carry out an impartial and comprehensive investigation into these facts and reveal the criminal gang since it contradicts the spineless and fictional version of 'suicide.' They have no intention of finding or punishing the murderers.”