News24, South Africa
June 20 2005

Guilty cops free under amnesty

Yerevan – An Armenian court on Monday sentenced two former policemen
to three years in prison for violently forcing a suspect to falsely
confess to raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl. But the two were
freed immediately under an amnesty.

Ruben Saakian and Gurgen Arushanian also were stripped of the right
to work as police officers for violently coercing suspect Armen
Pogosian to confess to the charges, which landed him 15 years in
prison.

After five years, prosecutors established the crime had been
committed by another man, Pogosian was freed, and the two officers
were fired.

They received amnesty because their 1998 crime fell under an amnesty
declared in 2001 to mark the 1 700th anniversary of Armenia’s
adoption of Christianity.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress