Most Important Evidence in Non-Combat Army Death Case is Missing

The most important evidence in the case of Tigran Ohanjanyan who died while serving in the army during peacetime on Aug. 30, 2007, the radio-relay station, is missing, Tigran’s mother, Gohar Sargsyan, told Epress.am today.

Recall, according to a Jan. 13, 2010 court ruling, Tigran got in contact with a wire that was hanging from an antenna mast of the aforementioned station and died from electroshock.

As a result of complaints by Tigran’s parents, the case was re-opened and a decision was made to again examine the evidence.

“They say my child was supposedly struck by an electric current from the wire from the relay station which is now missing. I would say this undermines the prosecution, four years of the investigation is ruined. The evidence has disappeared and the version of death by electroshock is eliminated.

“Now they were to start a new investigation on another person without pursuing the electroshock theory. But since our judicial system is interconnected, how can a brother sue his brother? One prosecutor has committed a crime by getting the investigation on the wrong track, gathering the testimonies together with the investigator — how can one sue the other?”

Sargsyan said that during the new preliminary inquiry, the relay station was to have been inspected, but the process was dragging on.

“A couple of days ago I called our investigator to ask when we’ll move toward examination; he said there won’t be an examination. I said how can that be; he said, the relay station is missing. How am I supposed to take it, when an investigation is going on for 4 years and their only proof is missing. Who ate the station? I promise to reward the person who finds the relay station,” Tigran’s mother told Epress.am.

According to her, the parents will consult their lawyer in order to decide who to give an announcement to and where they can find the station.

“I was with two of the experts the day before yesterday. If there’s no relay station, then you can’t examine it, you can’t write up a conclusion. What conclusion are you going to write? The expert and the investigator said they will examine a similar radio station, or they already have… I didn’t even want to hear it,” she said, comparing the situation with a case in which a vehicle runs over a pedestrian and then is missing, then another car is brought in its place which has left no trace on that man’s injuries.