ArmInfo.On March 1, 2008, the head of the investigation team on the case of riots in Yerevan Vahagn Harutyunyan sued the head of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia Sasun Khachatryan. Harutyunyan demands to refute the slanderous statements of Khachatryan, according to the court information portal datalex.am.
"Vahagn Harutyunyan's lawsuit against Sasun Khachatryan was filed with the court of Yerevan with a demand to oblige the defendant to refute the slanderous text," the statement reads. The lawsuit will be considered by judge Hayarpi Zargaryan.
Earlier, the Special Investigation Service stated that Harutyunyan, as senior investigator for particularly important cases and the head of the investigation team of the case on March 1-2, 2008, with the help of individual investigators and police officers, including an expert, organized falsification of documents. Later these accusations were confirmed by Sasun Khachatryan.
To note according to a report distributed by the Special Investigation Service (SIS), it turned out that V.A. occupying the position of chief investigator for particularly important cases of the SIS in 2007-2011, organized the falsification of evidence, in particular, with the aim of concealing the "real circumstances of the unconstitutional use of the Armed Forces of Armenia, including the unlawful use of firearms by members of the armed forces" during events in Yerevan March 2, 2008. According to the decision of March 5, 2008, in the course of the examination, V. A. and the investigator of the same group invited a representative of the commanding staff of the police forces and stated that in order to conceal the participation of the Defense Ministry's units and deny rumors about their actions, they must be exchanged at the scene about 1000 sleeves on the police cartridges shot. The high-ranking police officer of the police force, in turn, ordered his subordinates to carry out the assignment. The required number of shots was fired at the shooting range in the village of Getazat, Ararat region. Then the sleeves were transferred to the expert-ballista A.A. The latter, assisting V.A., fulfilling his order, replaced the liners and entered the required information on the results of the examination into the report issued by him of December 29, 2008, which was attached to the materials of the criminal case file on December 30, 2007 as forged evidence.
In the beginning of November Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan decided to use a two-month arrest as a measure of restraint in the March 1, 2008 case against the former deputy head of the Investigation Committee of Armenia Vahagn Harutyunyan and expert ballist of the Police Artur Hovhannisyan. The defense of Harutyunyan found this decision illegal and intends to protest it in the Court of Appeal. Lawyer Mihran Poghosyan told reporters that pressure was put on the court. According to him, the announcement of Harutyunyan on the international wanted list was also illegal, since the investigating body was informed about the location of the former deputy head of the Investigation Committee, which is currently in Moscow and is undergoing inpatient treatment there.