He Had a Gun, But There Were No Fingerprints: Expert Convinced Armenian Soldier was Murdered

The investigation into the death of military conscript Manuchar Meruzhan Manucharyan is biased, said Ruben Martirosyan, an expert on army cases with the Helsinki Association for Human Rights, in conversation with Epress.am today. 

Manucharyan was drafted to the army in the summer of 2012 from the Vanadzor military commissariat. He died on Jul. 31, 2012, as a result of three gunshot wounds. A criminal case was launched under RA Criminal Code Article 110 Section 1 (inciting suicide).

"The preliminary investigation is biased because only suicide is being considered [as the cause of death]. From the very beginning of the criminal case, the investigative body declared that Manucharyan killed himself. So that this version is not questioned, the Ministry of Defense's Investigative Service spread false information that supposedly Manucharyan was a Jehovah's Witness and/or supposedly there was a girl he loved and when that girl rejected his love, he killed himself. These two stories are completely untrue," Martirosyan said.

The expert said that in this case several examinations were appointed, some of the results of which have been received, which, Martirosyan said, according to the established vicious tradition, have not led to any significant conclusions. "At the time of the murder, Manucharyan was a sentry […] An examination revealed no fingerprints on the weapon in his possession, the fact of which is sufficient evidence and grounds that he was killed. At the very least, speaking about the absence of fingerprints is casual and ridiculous, since Manucharyan was carrying out his sentry service with a weapon. Under such circumstances, fingerprints could be erased either by the criminals or the investigative body, with the aim of presenting the incident as suicide," he said. 

Martirosyan stressed that also giving cause to doubt the objectivity of the investigation is that there has been no expert opinion on the recording of video cameras in the military unit for two and a half months.

"The aforementioned provides grounds to conclude that once again the defense ministry's investigative service 'reveals' the case of a murdered soldier by misleading the deceased's relatives and the public, spreading false information, and concealing the true criminals," concluded the expert.