Epress.am News from Armenia
The Investigative Committee of Armenia has decided not to disclose the findings of the preliminary investigation into the murder of 21-year-old Russian soldier Dmitri Yalpayev in order to “safeguard the interests of the case,” Sona Truzyan, spokesperson for the Committee, told Epress.am on Wednesday.
Truzyan thereby confirmed the words of murder suspect Armen Janjughatsyan’s lawyer, Syuzanna Khcheyan, who had said during an earlier phone conversation with Epress.am that she had signed a document in the Investigative Committee, according to which she was not at liberty to disclose any information on the case.
Speaking about the authorities reasons for conducting the investigation in secrecy, Truzyan noted that, according to the Armenian criminal procedure code, “the preliminary investigation body has all the authority to make such decisions.” The spokesperson added that the officials would report on the case “if need be.”
Recall, Dmitri Yalpayev, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri, was found dead near the Argo store on the city’s Dudko street on April 22. The suspect, who has been identified as 21-year-old Armen Janjughatsyan, is said to be an ex-serviceman with a history of mental health issues.
“In 2016, [Janjughatsyan] was committed to the psychiatric ward of the Central Clinical Military Hospital in Yerevan for multiple episodes of self-harm. He then underwent comprehensive criminal outpatient forensic examinations and was diagnosed with various mental health problems. [Janjughatsyan] was found partially sane and unfit for military service in peacetime and was discharged from the army in March 2017,” the Committee had said in a previous statement.
The Aravot newspaper, for its part, had written that the suspect is a “Sunni Islamic fanatic who reads the Quran in three foreign languages – Greek, Arabic, and English.”