COURT FINDS TWO POLICEMEN GUILTY OF AUTHORITY TRANSGRESSION COMBINED WITH VIOLENCE

YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The court of the first instance of Lori
marz chaired by Vladimir Aslanian sentenced the deputy commander of
the State Premises Protection Regiment of the RA Police Ruben Sahakian
and an assistant officer on duty of the RA Police Erebuni Department’s
Nubarashen Unit Gurgen Arushanian to 3 years in prison, depriving them
of the right to engage in certain type of activities for two years. The
two above mentioned persons, however, did not serve thier sentences,
since the incident happened in 1998, and the amnesty declared in 2001
on the occasion of the 1700 anniversary of the adoption of Christianity
by Armenia applied to them. The accused were found guilty of exceeding
their official authority combined with violence. R. Sahakian who
was at the time the deputy head of the Lori regional department of
the Ministry of Interior Affairs, and G. Arushanian, a policeman of
the Vanadzor department, committed violence against Armen and Artur
Poghosians in order to make Armen Poghosian confess in the rape and
murder of the 11-year-old Geghetsik Ghandilian. As a result of this,
in 1999 Poghosian was sentenced to 15-year imprisonment, but in 2004,
during an investigation into a similar case it emerged that the
crime had been actually committed by Boris Khasoev, based on which
the criminal prosecution against A. Poghosian was stopped.