By Ruzanna Khachatrian
Armenian law-enforcement authorities are continuing their “large-scale” investigation into last week’s armed attack on the mayor of Gyumri but have made no arrests so far, Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian said on Wednesday. Mayor Vartan Ghukasian was seriously wounded and three of his bodyguards killed when their motorcade came under fire about 30 kilometers west of Yerevan on April 2. Ghukasian was returning to Armenia’s second largest city after attending a high-level meeting of the governing Republican Party (HHK), of which he is a member.
The Armenia police, the National Security Service and the Office of the Prosecutor-General launched a joint criminal investigation into the deadly shooting. “Serious and large-scale work is being done every day and every hour,” Hovsepian told RFE/RL.
But he admitted that they have so far made little progress. “The investigation has still a lot to clear up, including motives of the murder attempt,” he said.
“We are examining all possible theories,” added Hovsepian. “Given the secrecy of the investigation, I cannot list any of them right now.”
The national police chief, Hayk Harutiunian, described the brazen attack last week as a “gauntlet thrown down at the law-enforcement bodies,” saying that they “will do everything to identify and punish the criminals.”
(Photolur photo: Aghvan Hovsepian.)