Akhuryan Police were Disgraced, Says Investigator in Prisoner Suicide Case

The Dec. 10 suicide of Gyumri resident Gor Manukyan at Akhuryan Police Department is unusual in that it took place under the noses of police officers, under specially controlled conditions, writes local daily Aravot (“Morning”).

As previously reported, Manukyan used a bed sheet to hang himself. The twice-convicted 43-year-old had been arrested for theft but had been released from prison. He committed suicide while in a temporary holding cell for detainees just prior to his release.

The Aravot reporter asked Armen Mikayelyan, the investigator looking into the case, what were officers on duty doing at the time, and whether detainees are permitted to take sheets and blankets with them into the cell?

“This is a rare case — the first time it’s happened in our experience — because when admitting people into police custody, belts, shoelaces, everything that might allow one to kill himself are taken from them. Detainees are permitted two sheets and one pillow case,” he said.

Of the two officers on duty, Mikaeyelyan said, one had done the rounds and walked in front of the cells, monitoring prisoner activity, while the other was at the guards’ office.

The investigator noted that 3 to 4 minutes before the incident, the officer on duty had seen Gor Manukyan in his cell, even speaking with them, while a few minutes later, he found him strangled to death with his sheet.

Manukyan was the only one in his cell, and officers hadn’t noticed anything unusual with him.

According to police officers, Manukyan spent his whole life in captivity: he’s been serving time since 2003, twice convicted for theft. However, fresh out of prison, he stole again: he broke into his cousin’s car garage and stole his car.

A criminal case specified under RA Criminal Code Article 110 Section 1 (“causing someone to commit suicide”) has been launched.

Speaking to Aravot, Mikayelyan said that with his deed Gor Manukyan has shamed the officers at Akhuryan division, while, according to the investigator, supervision in the police division was properly carried out, the police did their rounds and monitored prisoner activity.