Epress.am News from Armenia
Ashot Frangulyan was a contractor on my house who began a job then mysteriously disappeared, a citizen who didn’t wish to identify himself informed local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) in an article published by the paper today.
Recall, Frangulyan claims that on Jan. 13, Haykakan Jamanak correspondent Hayk Gevorgyan ran over his foot while backing out of a parking spot and then fled the scene. On Feb. 3, police arrested the journalist and detained him for 72 hours for the crime, which the media and members of the public claim was fabricated in retaliation for articles Gevorgyan wrote that were critical of the police chief.
The wall between the toilet and bath had to be torn down and on Jan. 13, my son went to get a contractor and he brought Ashot Frangulyan, the unnamed man told the paper. “He’s the victim in the Hayk Gevorgyan case. We found out about that later from the TV, because on the day of the incident he was at our house doing work — the first half of the day, then he disappeared.
“He came in the morning and did some work and then approached me, saying I’ll be right back. I went out after him to see where he is — he was speaking with some people in the hallway entrance of a nearby building. After that, he came and continued to work. Then I went to the market, returned and saw that he’s not there. I asked my son, where’s our contractor? Some people came and called on him, it seems they were police officers, and he went with them… he left, leaving our work half-finished. The oddest part was that he had left his coat, his phone, cigarettes and lighter at our place — he left all this and disappeared… my son brought in another guy who finished the job… But I was uneasy; I was saying, that Ashot left his clothes in our home then disappeared — [I hope] he doesn’t draw us into something and that nothing happened to him. And I didn’t know what to do with his stuff, where I should put them. On one hand, we thought, let’s call a number on his phone; on the other hand, we said, it’s not our place.
“It was an odd situation; for six days Ashot Frangulyan was nowhere to be found. After six days, he came. It was evening, and he came with his wife. As soon as he came, I snapped at him, saying who does this, leaves the job half done and leaves? He said, please, don’t get upset, something happened. At first he said there was a robbery at his neighbor’s house and they suspected him; then he said he was run over by a car. Surprised, I asked, how are you run over and walking [normally] like that? He had neither a cane nor crutches… he took his stuff and left.”
The paper also notes that a former employee with the Kentron (central) police division told its correspondent that he knows Ashot Frangulyan, since years ago he saw him doing contract work at the Kentron police station.