Epress.am News from Armenia
On November 28 2019, former head of Yerevan Police Department, Ashot Karapetyan (born in 1950) was reported dead in Pyatigorsk, Russia, allegedly due to gas explosion and building collapse in a beer-producing facility. The circumstances of his death, however, are still not confirmed. Russian media have also reported that another men, Tigran Tarposyan (born in 1959), a relative of Karapetyan, also died due to the explosion. The explosion took place at around 7am on November 28.
Yerevan’s former Chief of Police was in the police system since 1995. He was released from his latest post after the violent crack-down of protests in Sari Tagh District of Yerevan in 2016, when thousands of people were gathered to prevent deadly violence in the standoff between police forces and Sansa Tser armed group that had seized the police station.
Ashot Karapetyan was involved in the investigation over March 1 case as an eyewitness and has testified to the Special Investigative Committee of Armenia, confirms the committee.
Ashot Karapetyan is also known to the public through Grisha Virabyan’s case heard by the European Human Rights Court, which recognized that Virabyan was tortured during his detention and Ashot Karapetyan was one of his torturers.