Yerevan Man Accused of Axing Former Wife and Parents-In-Law Claims He Was Acting in Self-Defense

Yerevan’s Shengavit district court, presided over by judge Davit Balayan, on Wednesday held the first hearing on the Mansuryans’ family axing case. The hearing, however, did not last long as accused Vladik Martirosyan, who is facing a murder charge and two attempted murder charges, asked the judge to postpone it so that he would be provided with a public defender. The next hearing will thus be held on March 16.

Recall, on July 8, 2016, Martirosyan attacked his former wife Taguhi Mansuryan and her parents, axing his former mother-in-law to death and leaving Mansuryan and her father severely injured. In his pre-trial testimony, however, the defendant claimed that his actions had not been premeditated and that he had “only taken away the axe from Vachagan Mansuryan in self-defense.” Meanwhile, speaking to reporters after the tragic incident, Taguhi Mansuryan has said her former spouse had repeatedly threatened her and her family in the past, and the attack therefore “was not a big surprise.”

Mansuryan filed for divorce within a year of getting married due to constant family quarrels and periodic beatings. Nevertheless, the conflict between the former spouses did not end there as they now continued to fight over child custody and visitations. According to a court ruling, Martirosyan could meet with the child twice a week; Mansuryan, however, said in her testimony that her former husband had gone to the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service, where the meetings were being held, only once and it was then when he first threatened Taguhi and said the child would “not live up to 2 years of age.”

Note, in 2015 court proceedings presided over by Nelly Baghdasaryan, Vladik Martirosyan was found guilty of having subjected his then-wife Taguhi Mansuryan to domestic violence on at least three separate occasions; however, he never actually served any time in prison thanks to Baghdasaryan’s decision to impose a six-month suspended sentence against him.

On the day of the axing, Martirosyan had once again gone to Mansuryan’s house in order to “resolve the issues over the child visitations.” The former spoused began quarreling again, and both sides subsequently called the police, accusing each other of physical violence. Martirosyan also called an ambulance, claiming that he had begun feeling unwell during the argument; he then refused to go to the police station for questioning, saying to the officers that he was waiting for his ambulance and would go to the station in the morning. Later, when Taguhi and her mother had already gone to the station to testify, Martirosyan left the area in his own car.

According to the indictment, knowing that his former wife and her mother would soon return from the station, Martirosyan took an axe and returned to their building. He then hid in the stairwell, and when the women came back to their house at around 4:30 in the morning, Martirosyan attacked them from behind and begun inflicting axe blows on them. Mansuryan’s father, who was inside their apartment at the time, came out at the women’s cries and was also injured by his former son-in-law’s axe.

Meanwhile, in his testimony Martirosyan claimed that he was the “real victim.” After he was treated by the ambulance staff, the man said, he stayed in the Mansuryans’ yard as he was “feeling unwell.” At around 4:30, he allegedly heard the women’s voices and decided to go up to the second floor in order to to avoid meeting them. On the second floor, Martirosyan went on, he saw Taguhi’s father with an axe in his hands, and shortly after “Taguhi and her mother came and began stirring up trouble.”

The prosecutor wrote in the indictment that, according to Martirosyan, the fight had already begun when he took away the axe from Mansuryan and proceeded to randomly hit the three of them.

Witness Sargis Grigoryan, the Mansuryans’ neighbor who was the first to come to the family’s rescue, said in his own testimony that he had heard Martirosyan to shout “I’ll end you all” during the axing. When he tried to forcibly remove Martirosyan from the area, the witness went on, the man shouted at him to “Let go of me! I have to kill them all!”

Speaking to Epress.am after the Wednesday hearing, the Mansuryans’ lawyer, Inessa Petrosyan, said she did not have any complaints about the results of the preliminary investigation or the work of the prosecution. Should any issues arise, she added, they will be brought up during the trial.