Court of Appeal starts proceeding of a murder case occurred 25 years  ago, committed by former MP

ArmInfo. The Court of Appeal has started proceeding on a case on the murder of 25 years ago, submitted to the court by the Armenian military prosecutor's office, the press  service of the Prosecutor General's Office informs.

According to the source, the case was reopened due to the  identification of new facts. In 2018, the police of Armenia received  a statement from E. P. that in 1994, in a restaurant complex in the  village of Taronik, as a result of a quarrel H. G. killed the  applicant's father Mher Poghosyan, however, as a result of a frame-up  of facts H. G.  was sentenced to just one year in prison.

During the preparation of the facts in this case, E.P. reaffirmed the  information previously provided to them, adding that specific people  who were at the crime scene reported him about the incident.  Moreover, he noted that after the incident, the uncle of H.G. Manvel  Grigoryan (general, former MP arrested on charges of embezzlement on  a large scale, illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, ed.  note), came to their house and intimidated his grandfather with so  that he did not file a complaint, after which their family,  frightened, left Armenia.

A certificate was also received, signed by the then Deputy Minister  of Defense, that Mher Poghosyan died on April 16, 1994, while on  duty. As a result  the Armenian police, on August 6, 2018 opened a  criminal case under Article 314 of the RA Criminal Code (Forgery).

As a result of large-scale operational and investigative actions  carried out during the preliminary investigation, evidence was  obtained that Mher Pogosyan, director of the Echmiadzin factory "Toch  Pribor", with three people, on April 16, 1994, went to a restaurant  in the village of Aknalich. After lunch, several people approached  them, including H.G. There was a quarrel, during which H. G., after a  shot in the air, shot at Mher Poghosyan and fled from the scene.

Poghosyan was taken to hospital where he died. It was also  established that a criminal case was opened on April 17, 1994, and at  the first stage of the case  H.G. was charged under Article 99 of the  Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia (killing a person for a  minor reason and endangering the lives of others).

However, on April 26, a decision was made to change the charge, and  on December 19, the court made a decision on recognizing H.G. guilty  under point "B" 259.1 of the article, according to which Mher  Poghosyan died as a result of improper handling of weapons by H.G.,  and he was deprived of his liberty for a period of one year.

Also, the documents were confiscated from the Ministry of Defense  according to which Mher Poghosyan was found dead, despite the fact  that the latter had no relation to military service. According to  these documents, Poghosyan died on April 16, 1994 in the village of  Mataghis in the NKR, which contradicts the materials of the criminal  case and the decision of the court. Moreover, Poghosyan was  posthumously awarded a medal for courage by the second president of  Armenia in 2002.

Given the newly discovered and previously unknown to the court  circumstances in this case, which prove that the crime of the  convicted person was more serious than the one for which he was  convicted, the military prosecutor Vahe Harutyunyan has opened a  criminal case. Moreover, the investigation of the Poghosyan murder  case, as well as the court decision, was carried out with obvious  violations.

Considering all of the above, the military prosecutor Vahe  Harutyunyan, filed an appeal in the case of the murder of 25 years  ago, taking into account newly discovered facts, and sent the case to  the court of first instance for a second consideration. The complaint  is currently in progress.

To note, the accused H.G. (Hrant Grigoryan, ed. note) is the nephew  of the arrested General Manvel Grigoryan. It is noteworthy that after  this incident, Grigoryans did not communicate at all, moreover,  according to information from circles close to Grigoryan, there was a  feud between them. After the incident, Hrant Grigoryan was twice  elected a member of the Armenian parliament by the majority system  from the Vagharshapat community, and was a member of the then ruling  Republican Party.