Epress.am News from Armenia
The Russian military base’s serviceman suspected of the murder of Julieta Ghazaryan was not arrested by the Armenian law enforcement bodies. He is kept in the facilities of the Russian military base N 102 in Gyumri in violation of a number of Armenia-Russia agreements. This is a statement by Union of Informed Citizens.
Article 4 of the bilateral agreement on “Jurisdiction and Mutual Legal Assistance in the Territory of the Russian Military Base in the Republic of Armenia” states that “Cases of crimes committed by personnel of the Russian military base in the territory of the Republic of Armenia are subject to investigation by the competent authorities of the Republic of Armenia, with the application of the RA legislation.
Apparently, the Russian authorities, refer to Article 61 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, when they insist that a Russian citizen who is under the control of Russian law enforcement authorities cannot be surrendered to another state (as it was done in case of Valery Permyakov).
However, the Agreement on the Russian Military Base in the Republic of Armenia signed in 1995 and other subsequent agreements clearly stipulate that Military base N 102 occupies land under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Armenia, and there is no indication that the military base is a Russian territory.
That is to say, the Russian military serviceman accused of crime is not on Russian premises but in Armenian land. Therefore, the ban of the Russian constitution is not applicable to him.
Russian legislation is applicable on the premises of the Military Base N 102 inasmuch as is stipulated by bilateral agreements. As seen in the articles of the agreements, it is clearly stipulated that this case should be under the jurisdiction of the Armenian law enforcement authorities.
Thus, it turns out that a person who has murdered an innocent woman in the territory of the Republic of Armenia is not handed over to Armenian law enforcement authorities. As a legal consequence, he avoids the persecution stipulated by the criminal legislation in Armenia.
In other words, Russian Military base N 102 located in Gyumri provides refuge and protection to the person suspected of committing a crime in Armenia and hides him from Armenian law enforcement authorities and from potential prison sentence in the Republic of Armenia,” is stated by the Union of Informed Citizens.
Julieta Ghazaryan was an employee of the Housing, utilities and maintenance department of Gyumri’s municipality.
In a conversation with Epress.am, on December 3 the press department of the Southern District of Russian Armed Forces based in Rostov denied any affiliation of the Russian military base serviceman with the murder of the woman. To our question where their confidence comes from that this is the case, our interlocutor raised their voice and noted that this information was a result of bad faith of mass media that aims to “make a crack in the Armenian-Russian relations.”