Friend of Murder Suspect Boasts About How ‘Nicely He Cut Up’ Victims

Human rights defender Eduard Danielyan, who has been monitoring the court hearing on the July 2016 axing of the Mansuryans’ family, was yesterday approached on the street by a man of about 40, who identified himself as a friend of defendant Vladik Martirosyan and boasted about how “nicely Vladik has cut them up.”

In a conversation with Epress.am, Danielyan said he had previously seen the man at the court hearings: “He was always really active, would constantly make comments about the case. He was not present at yesterday’s hearing, but he came up to me nevertheless. I didn’t recognize him at first, but when he began asking questions about ‘Vladik’s trial,” I immediately realized who he was. He asked me whether I was a journalist, and I replied that no, I am a human rights defender. Then he asked who I was defending, and I had to explain that I was not a lawyer, but a human rights defender who was defending the right to a fair trial.”

As they were crossing the street, Danielyan went on, the man smiled and said: “He cut them up really nicely, didn’t he? They deserved that and even more.” Having said that, the man hurriedly left. The human rights defender suggested that the man perhaps had not followed him but saw him on the street accidentally and decided to come up to him.

Representatives of the women’s rights organizations who have been assisting Taguhi Mansuryan during the trial told Epress.am that they had also seen the man at the court hearings. After one of the hearings, according to them, the man had said he had met Vladik Mansuryan at the office of the Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service as he was also involved in a child custody dispute.

Taguhi Mansuryan, in turn, told us that the man couldn’t have been an old friend of Martirosyan, because she would have otherwise recognized him.

Recall, on July 8, 2016, Vladik 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 had said her former spouse had repeatedly threatened her and her family in the past, and the attack therefore “was not a big surprise.