Epress.am News from Armenia
The results of a subset of the many examinations appointed by investigator M. Nalbandyan in the case of conscript soldier Manuchar Manucharyan are already ready, but they have practically no value: the expert opinions revealed no significant facts, representative of Manucharyan's legal successor, Helsinki Association for Human Rights lawyer Arayik Papikyan informed Epress.am.
Manucharyan died on July 31, 2013, from gunshot wounds. According to the official report, he was driven to suicide, though, as Papikyan pointed out, one of the examinations determined that the weapon with which Manucharyan allegedly killed himself had no fingerprints on it.
Papikyan also spoke about one of the examinations, which he called shameful: "Two soldiers serving in Manucharyan's military unit in October 2013 were arrested and transferred to a disciplinary cell. The investigative body, suspecting that these soldiers are connected to Manucharyan's so-called suicide, decides to secretly listen in on their conversations in the cell. For this purpose, the court's permission was obtained, to carry out 'internal monitoring' operational-search activities.The detainees' cell is filmed using a hidden camera.
"On Nov. 5, 2013, a court examination is appointed to determine the contents of the conversation of the recordings on the two laser discs. The examination began on Nov. 7, and the results were given to me on Mar. 13, 2014.
"According to the experts' conclusion of the approximately 5 hours of footage from the hidden cameras, it was possible to decipher [only] a few words or expressions: for example, 'When are we going to smoke?', 'Look, when they say…', and 'You get it?'
"It wasn't possible to decipher more because the audiovisual equipment was [placed] quite far from the detainees, and it was noisy.
"What happened is shameful: developed, prepared, and carried out were operational-search activities; many competent persons were involved in this — investigator, prosecutor, judge, and others; people (suspects) were arrested. All this was done for the sake of the Republic of Armenia. But because the recording device was ill-suited or the person who replaced it was ignorant or because of 5 hours of noise, the perhaps most important operational-search activities [completely] failed. I am sure that not only I, but also no one believes that the ‘developed operation’ failed because of the device or the person who installed it. It’s simply impossible in a country constantly proud of its victories in the army and IT sectors not to find one working audiovisual recording device and a person who knows how to use it. I’m more inclined to believe that the ‘operation’ was failed deliberately. I can’t rule out [the possibility] that the operation didn't fail at all, perhaps the recording is complete, and the results of deciphering it will reveal more than they 'should'," said the lawyer.
Papikyan is also suspicious that the examination, which began by the two experts on Nov. 7, 2013, to study the 5 hours of recording from the discs, wrapped up only on Feb. 28, 2014. The conclusion consisted of only 4 pages; that is, each expert wrote half a page each month.
"After all this, there is almost no doubt that the investigative body and the prosecutor in charge of and supervising its work will soon close the case — without revealing the truth," he said.