A Story of Another Farce – “Investigation Goes On”

On 22 May the Public Relations Department of R.A. Police issued a statement, which said that L. Gulyan was “invited” to the Shengavit District Police Station of Yerevan (2) in connection with the murder of certain Stepan Vardanyan killed on 9 May near the “Pandok” restaurant, owned by L. Gulyan. To be exact it reads as follows: “…The body of S. Vardanyan was lying 1.5 meter away from the “Pandok” restaurant with a cell-phone accumulator which belonged to L. Gulyan found near the corpse. Therefore, there is more than ample evidence to believe that he is involved in the deadly incident…”

As Stanislavski used to say – “I don’t believe!” Firstly, the corpse of S. Vardanyan was not found there as, according to eyewitnesses, after the deadly shot S. Vardanyan was put into a car by his friends and taken away. This means that it was not possible “to find” the accumulator near the body. As regards “the rumble”, it occurred 8 – 10 meters from the restaurant (3). By the way, both the accumulator and the cell-phone itself are with the family of L. Gulyan. I am also struck by the word “invited” as someone is taken from bed at three at night and convoyed to the police. Of course, the word “WRITTEN NOTIFICATION” has been out of use in the cops’ vocabulary for long already.

The more is the worse. The statement says that as one of supposed witnesses L. Gulyan was interrogated and released. “Based on investigation tactics”, L. Gulyan was “invited” to the GCID (4), where he had been brought from the district police station by homicide division police officers. Seems so good! They invited, questioned and released. Though, it’s quite confusing… And here is the account of the events given by Jemma Gulyan (5), the widow of L. Gulyan – the police showed up at 3 a.m. in the night from 9 to 10 May in order to take along L. Gulyan. He returned home late on 10 May and though he said nothing his wife knew that he been subjected to abuses. He was released only after he had promised to return the next morning of 11 May. Next time she saw him was the morning of 12 May – he was released in order to cast his vote at the parliamentary elections due on that day (!). “Everyone is entitled to elect and be elected” – this democratic slogan is running in the blood of our cops. Having cast his vote, L. Gulyan went back to the police station from where he was taken to the GCID.

As we proceed reading the police report, we find out that at 14:30 (!!!) having filled in all the required documents, L. Gulyan was taken to the work-room of G. Tadevosyan. Having interviewed him orally for about half an hour, G. Tadevosyan went to his superiors to report on the results of the interview. In his absence, L. Gulyan asked a police-officer who was in the same room, to fetch him a glass of water and, finding himself alone in the room at about 15:20 (!!!) he attempted to escape through the window (6) and fell down “…Before the arrival of an ambulance car, police officers tried to render first aid, but L. Gulyan already died of the bodily injuries he received…” Derived from the above, it can be assumed that L. Gulyan died at about 15:30. Now we consult another document, namely the report on the medical examination No. 402 signed by Artak Darbinyan. The second page of it reads: “Circumstances of the Case. On 12 May at 15:00 (!!!)” the Yerevan Prosecution Office received a phone-call from the R.A. Police and was reported that at 14:30 (!!!) in the vicinity of the GCID premises a dead body of a male was discovered…that of L. Gulyan”. Can we say, sorry for sacrilege, that a dead man asked a glass of water from a cop? Or L. Gulyan was still alive when a phone-call to the Yerevan Prosecution Office was made?

It all evolved fast-paced right after. The Prosecution Office brings a criminal action for incitement to suicide as envisaged in Article 110 §1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. An investigation panel was established presided by Prosecutor Hrant Chakhoyan (7). On 30 May a medical examiner’s report was concluded as well as all the rest expert opinions received. The more so, upon permission from the investigation panel, assisted by the OSCE Chief in Armenia V. Pryakhin, 2 independent experts visited Yerevan – Prof. Doc. Markus Rotschild of Germany and Prof. Peter Leth of Denmark (8) who carried out medical examination on 19 May. Strange enough is that the foreign experts had not met with the family of L. Gulyan, but cooperated closely with the prosecution agencies. Why? It was so decided by V. Pryakhin and Armenian human rights defenders as otherwise they believed the investigation agency could allege that the injured party exerted pressure on the experts. This brings us to an idea that pressure on part of the prosecution agency is acceptable. The report of the foreign experts contains the following wording: “The information contained [in the medical report] is our interpretation of information that was given to us by Hrant Chakhoyan…” Let them be, especially as under Armenian law independent medical examiner’s report has no legal effect.

So what we are having is as follows: H. Chakhoyan is in charge of the investigation. Cops and also the prosecution body is “confident” that L. Gulyan died in an attempted police escape – he jumped out of the window but during the jump he collided with certain obstacles, though we don’t know which ones (9) and fell to death. What is needed for uphold this absurd version of events? A forensic medical examination! It’s not a problem to have one as there is Shotha Vardanyan (10) and his team. They will “draw” whatever needed. Not only “draw” but successfully prove their findings (11). It’s one and the same roof that they are under.

TO CONCLUDE THIS ARTICLE I want you to judge for yourself (12). Was it possible to find the body of L. Gulyan seven meters away from the window that he allegedly escaped from? Neither the pipe, nor the light-iron shed which were below between the window and the ground bore the traces of a falling-down body. There was only one fingerprint of L. Gulyan found on the window-sill. The window measures 0.45X1.2. L. Gulyan’s weight was 90 – 95 kg, height – 177 cm.