CONTINUED CONCERN IN KHALAFYAN CASE: HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER SAYS OTHERS WERE ALSO TORTURED
By Gayane Abrahamyan

ArmeniaNow
06.05.10 | 15:51

Sakunts says Khalafyan’s case is not unique and measures should be
taken concerning the situation in general.

A prominent human rights defender says other suspects in police
custody that led to the death of Vahan Khalafyan were also tortured
by Charentsavan police in attempts to get a confession to charges
of theft.

Khalafyan died while in custody April 13. Investigator Ashot
Harutiunyan has been charged with negligent homicide in the incident,
in which police claim Khalafyan killed himself.

Arthur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Office,
complains, that "the Special Investigation Service is focused merely
on the Khalafyan case, presenting it as an exclusive case, insisting
that it did not have an extended nature."

However, the mother of 36-year-old Davit Gyulumyan, also accused and
currently in Nubarashen penitentiary, said that "violence had been
committed against her son."

"My poor child said, ‘Mom, I have signed some documents, but I had
no way out – either I was to die like Vahan, or to write whatever
they wanted me to write [a confession]. They beat me severely. I
couldn’t take it any longer’," Armik Gharibyan, Gyulumyan’s mother,
told ArmeniaNow. She also says that although her son was detained on
April 13, it was not until April 30 that she was allowed to see him.

Meanwhile, on May 5, the Special Investigation Service released a
statement, saying that a forensic examination of the other suspects
found no evidence of violence. It also says that Gyulumyan refuses
to give testimony (about torture).

Sakunts also insists that witnesses Norayr Chilyan, and Arayik
Arakelyan, first detained and later set free for the same case, left
Armenia, "which is strange, because their passports were in the police
department; and it is not usually that easy to take them back."

Sakunts speculates that Chilyan and Arakelyan were told by authorities
to get out of the country, so as not to be available to testify.

On April 15, Sakunts met Chilyan.

"Norayr was speaking with difficulty," Sakunts says, adding that a
doctor had been called to treat him. "He could not sit. And there
was nothing said about leaving Armenia."