RESULT OF THE EXPERTISE PRESENTED AT THE AD-HOC COMMITTEE
National Assembly of RA
Feb 2 2009
Armenia
The Ad-hoc Inquiry Committee into the Events Occurred on 1-2 March 2008
in Yerevan and Their Reasons of the National Assembly at its sitting
on January 23 touched upon the results of the technical experise on
the special means Cheryomukha – 7.
Meanwhile Mr Samvel Nikoyan, Ad-hoc committee chairman, passed the
data provided by RA Special Examination Service to those present on
the criminal case of March 1. According to that certificate, a charge
was proposed to 140 persons, 54 of them by Article 225 of the Criminal
Code, 15 of them by Articles 225 and 300, 34 of them by Article 316,
and 27 of them by Articles 176 and 177. As Mr Samvel Nikoyan said,
the detention was changed towards 31 persons, the criminal case
towards 26 persons was quashed or the criminal persecution was
suspended. 90 cases were sent to the court, verdicts were made
for 87 cases. According to these data, by RA President’s decree,
12 defendants were granted pardon, and in 12 cases the charges were
grounded only by the evidence of the police.
The member of the Ad-hoc committee, chairman of the New Times Party
Mr Aram Karapetyan, who left for Moscow with a letter addressed to
the RF Deputy Minister of Interior Affairs Mr Alexander Smirny on
Cheryomukha – 7 technical expertise, gave details about the visit.
The answer of the technical expertise was sent not to Mr Samvel
Nikoyan, but to the prosecutor’s office, who in his turn passed it to
NA Ad-hoc Committee. According to Mr Aram Karapetyan’s information,
after his visit to RA General Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the visit
to the representatives of police to Moscow with the same problem by
which he explained the results of the expertise to the Prosecutor’s
Office, but not the circumstance of providing to the committee.
Mr Samvel Nikoyan read the document of the Prosecutor’s Office
received from Special Technique and Communication research-production
association of the Interior Affairs of the Russian Federation,
where it said in particular that the bullets of Cheryomukha – 7 and
Cheryomukha – 7M were valid for use maximum five years.
It is supposed from the interpellations of the Prosecutor’s Office
that the weapons were of 1986 and 1989 production: after passing the
term the technical description of these means, according to Russian
experts, is changed, military features are reduced and they cannot
harm human’s life and health. Instead it is prohibited to shoot
immediately a man. The NA Ad-hoc Committee also was interested in
possibility of identifying Cheryomukha – 7 gas grenades with the
shot weapons. In response, it was written that the institute does
not do ballistic expertise, and it was proposed to address to another
expertise-criminal center of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian
Federation. At the sitting the committee decided to address the RA
Prosecutor’s Office and Special Examination Service for addressing
the above-mentioned structure to carry out expertise of identification.
The deputies attending the sitting expressed concern for deterioration
of the health state of their colleagues Mr Hakob Hakobyan and
Mr Sasun Mikayelyan and proposed to apply to relevant bodies for
providing medical investigation. The Human Rights Defender Mr Armen
Harutyunyan who was attending the sitting said that he hadn’t received
an official answer to his application addressed to Minister of Justice
on this problem.
The possibility of cooperation with the fact-finding group was also
discussed at the sitting, as well as the issue of participation in the
process of amendment of some articles in the Criminal Code. Mr Samvel
Nikoyan said that he was going to propose to extend the works of the
committee till the end of the activity of the fact-finding group.