Dataxazutyun

The preliminary investigation of the criminal cases initiated on mass disorders, destruction of state, public and private property, theft, arsons, violence, usage of firearms and explosives, obtaining and keeping different items with the purpose to use them as weapons as well as murders committed on March 1-2, 2008 in Yerevan is continued in the RA Special Investigation Service.

8 civilians, a policeman and a soldier of the Police Internal Troops died of bodily injuries received during the mass disorders. 35 civilians, 187 policemen and soldiers received bodily injuries. 92 means of transport (material damage of 70.854.525 AMD) were burnt and damaged, 27 of which were means of public transport (material damage of 5.736.825 AMD), 46 belonged to the RA Police (material damage of 39.362.600 AMD) and 19 to the citizens including the policemen’s own cars (material damage of 25.755.100 AMD).

The preliminary investigation body brought charges against 152 persons for committing crimes provided by the RA Criminal Code that is using violence against the citizens, putting up resistance to the policemen, robbing stores, stealing the weapons attached to the policemen, obtaining, keeping and using illegally obtained weapons, organizing mass disorders and ordering metal structures called “hedgehogs” convenient for causing bodily injuries. The criminal prosecution against 31 persons was terminated and the part of the criminal case was squashed during the preliminary investigation. 94 criminal cases were sent to the Court against 117 persons, 38 of them were not punished pursuant to the Article 70 of the RA Criminal Code and trial period was set, 5 were fined, 66 were sentenced to imprisonment, 5 were acquitted, one sentenced person was acquitted by the decision of the RA Court of Cassation, the criminal case against one person was terminated according to the Article 183 of the RA Criminal Code as a result of reconciliation with the defendant and the criminal case against one person was terminated as the person committed the crime in the state of insanity.

11 convicts were acquitted based on separate parts of the charges brought against them, milder punishment was used against one convict pursuant to the Article 64 of the RA Criminal Code, 28 sentenced persons were granted pardon by the Order of the President of Armenia and 26 sentenced persons were released from punishment based on the decision “On Announcing Amnesty” of the RA National Assembly.

The primary focus of the preliminary investigation body was fully detecting the circumstances of the damage including ones dangerous for life caused to the citizens and policemen during the mass disorders and calling the guilty persons to criminal liability. In this regard, a separate subgroup was formed within the investigation group which carries out deep investigation of the murder cases.

During the investigation of the criminal cases forensic, ballistic, ballistic and forensic trace complex, forensic biological and computer-technical examinations were appointed, the crime scenes were examined, numerous tasks were given to identify the guilty persons and a number of operative and intelligence measures were taken.

The policemen and soldiers of the RA Police Troops who had prevented the mass disorders on March 1, 2008 were interrogated. All the registration books of the correspondent Police Troops were confiscated and examined. All the weapons taken from the arsenal were found out. All the weapons and special means given to both the policemen and soldiers and taken from the arsenals of the Police Troops were confiscated and sent to the ballistic examination. The copies of all the mentioned documents were attached to the materials of the criminal case.

The bullets taken from Davit Petrosyan’s, Honhannes Hovhannisyan’s and Zakar Hovhannisyan’s bodies were compared to the both the bullets found at the venue, the bullets available in the Republican Cartridges and Bullets Collection and the armament bullets shot from the firearms of the policemen and soldiers during the prevention of mass disorders. No coincidence was confirmed and so far the firearms from which the bullets were shot have not been found out.

Taking into consideration the fact that according to the conclusion N 389 of the ballistic examination, the “Cheryomukha-7” gas grenade type missiles, found in the bodies of Gor Kloyan, Tigran Khachatryan and Armen Farmanyan are worthless for the identification of the concrete armament, and that’s why it has not been found out yet what kind of armament bullets wounded and killed the victims. For the elucidation of this matter and other matters connected with these cases, examinations were carried out in “Special Technique and Connection” scientific-productive and examination-criminal centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The conclusions of these examinations also stated that the “Cheryomukha-7” gas grenades can’t be identified with the shot bullets’ armaments.

The interrogations found out the movements of those people who used special means, the number of the shots, the venues where the shots were fired and their directions. The mentioned circumstances are compared to the venues and death circumstances of the dead people.

On July 13, 2009 a criminal case was initiated according to the parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Article 373 of the RA Criminal Code on the breach of rules of handling KS-23 special means during the prevention of the mass disorders, which caused death of three persons and bodily injuries of different degrees to other three persons. The criminal case was attached to the criminal case initiated on the mass disorders.

The bullets and foreign bodies taken from the bodies of the dead and injured citizens were taken to ballistic examination. The conclusion of the examination stated that the gas grenades and their plastic bullets shot from “Cheryomukha-7” type of bullets were found in the bodies of the three dead and three injured citizens. It was also stated that the subalterns of the Special Detachment of the RA Police Troops Levon Hakobyan and Avetik Atabekyan and the subalterns of the 1033 Unit of the RA Police Troops Mkrtich Gharibyan and Vardan Sahakyan used KS-23 carabineers in Mashtoc, G. Lusavorich, Leo and Paronyan streets of Yerevan on March 1, 2008.

The examination carried out in the “Special Technique and Connection” scientific-productive and examination-criminal centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation stated that it is not forbidden to fire “Cheryomukha-7” type of bullets into the open air but it is not allowed to fire directly on humans. The fire may be released in the location near the offenders taking into consideration the direction of the wind which will blow the gas cloud towards the offenders.

The examination carried in the Examination Department of the RA Police stated that on the plastic stoppers of the gas grenades of the“Cheryomukha-7” type of bullets taken from the bodies of the dead and injured citizens there are traces that is deformations, ruptures and touch traces caused by a crash with a hard object or penetrating through an obstacle.

The same examination stated that “Cheryomukha-7” type of bullets can cause injuries to humans (including deadly injuries) based on the corner of collision and the type of banned materials in case of jerk back when fired on the wall or other barrier.

Levon Hakobyan, Avetik Atabekyan, Mkrtich Gharibyan and Vardan Sahakyan were charged according to the parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Article 373 of the RA Criminal Code on the breach of rules of handling KS-23 special means during the prevention of mass disorders on March 1-2, 2008 in Yerevan, which caused death of three persons and bodily injuries of different degrees to other three persons. Signature not to leave the country was used as a pretrial measure against them.

The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly Thomas Hammarberg, during his visit to Yerevan from November 19 to 24, 2008, had a meeting with the RA Prosecutor General and recommended the Irish expert Collin Barous as a specialist with appropriate knowledge and experience in using special means and techniques. The latter was invited to Yerevan at the expense of the Armenian side to support the correspondent examination of the identification of the bullets taken from the bodies with the “Cheryomukha-7” type of bullets used by the policemen by sending all the necessary information and photocopies of the documents by e-mail. By examining all the materials and issues which need clarification Collin Barous informed that it is impossible to make the identification.

The President of the Republic of Armenia in the spring of 2011 tasked the law enforcement bodies of Armenia to strengthen the investigation in particular towards revealing the death circumstances of ten persons, to reconsider the evidences and to discuss all the possible variants in order to detect the cases. For this purpose the operative investigation group was supplemented by new investigators and operative employees.

The materials of the criminal case were examined, the results were regularly discussed, and the investigation plan was amended. The examination of the video recordings and photos is carried out episode by episode as a result of which it was tasked to determine the identity of some persons who may have witnessed the causing of bodily injuries dangerous for life, been in the venues and take the mentioned persons to interrogation. As a result of this 500 persons were interrogated.

During the preliminary investigation the RA Special Investigation Service applied to the society by the mass media for several times by asking to provide any information about the crimes committed during the mass disorders on March 1-2, 2008 in Yerevan and the circumstances of the deaths of ten persons. However, so far the preliminary investigation body has not received any response including from the representatives of the victims’ legal successors.

On May 23, 2011 a subscriber registered as “martiker2008” put on the www.youtube.com site a part of the video recording on the March 1-2, 2008 mass disorders in Yerevan headlined “how they shot on March 1, 2008…”, in which, according to the mass media publications, a policeman fires in the direction of the participants of the mass disorders.

A forensic video analysis was appointed to find out the signs of computer processing and assembling in the video as well as to reveal the images of the video as far as possible and to decide the issue of the identification of these images. According to the conclusion of the analysis, the video was shot from a far distance, from a high angle, at night, under bad lightning. The images of such video recordings cannot be identified by using computer automated method.

A complex video recording and ballistic examination was appointed to find out the type of firearm used by the person dressed in police uniform and an investigation experiment was carried out with the participation of the experts and correspondent specialists during which experimental shots were fired from the types of firearms and bullets, which as the investigation had revealed, had been given to the policemen on duty in Paronyan street on March 1, 2008. The process of the investigation experiment was recorded with appropriate equipments and given to the experts.

It is stated in the conclusion of the experiment that, “the two probable shots fired with interruptions by the person dressed in uniform in the “martimek2008” video recording might have been fired from “AKSU” assault rifle”. Meanwhile, it was stated that it was impossible to find out the type of concrete firearms and bullets based on the data of the video recording and only suppositions could be made as the video was shot from a far distance, under the artificial lighting and did not provide clear images and show that the person possessed something like a weapon.

Taking into consideration the fact that based on these expert examinations the experts did not provide full answers to some important issues, the RA Prosecutor General applied to the international organizations to involve appropriate specialists in order to get full answers to them. The RA Prosecutor General ensured that the experts would be provided with all the necessary conditions for the implementation of the examination both in Armenia and abroad. Some international organization refused to provide specialists giving reasons for not having specialists with such experience and practice of such cooperation. Explanations concerning this issue were given to the Commissioner of Human Rights. The latter sent a request for additional information on the issues which need clarification.

On 16 May, the RA Prosecutor General tasked the head of the investigation group and the prosecutors who supervise the preliminary investigation of the criminal case to have meetings with the representatives of mass media twice a month with the purpose of increasing the effectiveness of public awareness on the criminal case initiated on the mass disorders and murders committed on March 1-2, 2008 in Yerevan investigated by the RA Special Investigation Service. Since September, 2011, the frequency of the meetings has been changed taking into consideration the fact that the media interest towards the investigation reduced. At present, the meetings with the journalists are organized of necessity taking into consideration the volume of mass media inquiries. Interviews are also organized; written answers are given to written inquiries. A detailed statement was issued on the works carried out by the preliminary investigation body which is available in the web-site of the RA Special Investigation Service for all the interested parties and the public.