Armenian Conscript Was Not in Mental State To Commit Suicide, Expert Concludes

Hovhannes Petrosyan, a soldier who April 25, 2016, died of a gunshot head wound a military unit in Ijevan, was not in mental state that would lead to suicide, the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office reports, citing the results of a forensic psychology examination.

HCAV recalls that Vachagan Hayrapetyan, Petrosyan’s commander and a key witness in the case, died in a road accident on October 10, 2016, a few days after a face-to-face identification with Vachagan Petrosyan, the dead serviceman’s father and legal successor. “Hayrapetyan possessed information that was of value in the case and had talked about it in his testimony.”

The forensic expert also excluded any cause-effect link between the actions of Vachagan Hayrapetyan and Petrosyan’s fellow servicemen and his alleged suicide.

Recall, Petrosyan was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in the back of a GAZ-66 military truck in one of the front-line units of the country’s Defense Ministry; a criminal case was subsequently opened under article 110 of the Armenian Criminal Code – incitement to suicide.

According to an earlier report by Safesoldier.am, a few days before the incident, the conscript had told his father about the military unit’s officers’ practice of stealing gasoline, which he had tried to stop, ending up in a conflict with them.