The former head of an investigation group that conducted a probe into the 2008 deadly post-election violence has rejected as groundless the charges of falsifying evidence in the case that were brought against him by Armenian investigators.
In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Thursday, Vahagn Harutiunian described the accusations against him as “illegal and fabricated.” He also decried the fact that he was put on the wanted list despite the fact that the authorities knew about his whereabouts.
“One should have a really great imagination to draw such conclusions and press such charges,” the former senior investigator said, speaking on the phone from Moscow.
In a statement released on Wednesday the Special Investigative Service (SIS) said Harutiunian, who was the senior investigator of the Service in 2007-2011, “organized the falsification of evidence, in particular, with a view to hiding the real circumstances of the unconstitutional use of armed forces during the March 1-2, 2008 events in Yerevan, including the illegal use of firearms by officers of the armed forces.”
The statement said about a thousand used cartridges from firearms discovered at various sites where the deadly events were unfolding were subsequently “replaced with the same types and calibers of cartridges fired from the same types of weapons belonging to the police troops.”
The SIS said a ballistic expert assisted in the falsification and later provided a false conclusion regarding the cartridges. The expert, who is not identified by his full name yet, was also charged in the case. The SIS said it had asked the court to put Harutiunian and the ballistic expert under arrest.
Harutiunian, who has the rank of a major-general of justice, quit his senior position at the Armenian Investigative Committee in July, some two months after the change of government following sustained street protests led by then opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian, who was also one of the leaders of the 2008 opposition protests, was later convicted of “organizing mass disorders” and given a seven-year prison sentence, only to be released in 2011 under an amnesty, vowed to ensure the full detection of the 2008 events in which eight demonstrators and two security officers were killed.
In an interview today Harutiunian said he was in Moscow since quitting his job in July for the treatment of his cardiovascular problems.
He insisted that the charges against him are “guided”, but did not say by whom. “During the investigation of the criminal case while I was in charge there was no evidence of any illegal actions by the armed forces or any found cartridges [to prove that],” Harutiunian said, stressing that hundreds of cartridges found at the crime scene still remain unidentified.
SIS head Sasun Khachatrian on Thursday insisted that after the latest revelations “the fact of the involvement of the army in the events is more than solid.”
Former Armenian president Robert Kocharian is facing charges of “overthrowing the constitutional order” by ordering the use of the army to quell the protests.
Harutiunian, whose interrogation may shed more light on the circumstances of the killings, could not answer to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service for now whether he planned to return to Armenia any time soon.
Facebook Forum