Police Chief Alik Sargsyan Tries to Convince the Public of the Improbable

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[ 2010/05/17 | 15:20 ]
Feature Stories society
Edik Baghdasaryan

24 year-old Vahan Khalafyan was killed in the Charentsavan police
station. it possible that the public wouldn’t have known about it?
Yes, definetely. Is it possible that RA Police Chief Alik Sargsyan was
in cahoots when it cam to feeding the public false information
r5egarding the incident? Of course, because he continues to feed out
false information. He continues to claim that Vahan Khalafyan
committed suicide.

The powers that be could bring Police Chief Sargsyan up on criminal
charges for his abuse of power. During an interview with one of the
local paper, Chief Sargsyan said, `I will punish those of my staff
that gave me the wrong information, that put me in a tight spot. Those
who committed a crime and beat this young man, tortured him, they will
all be punished to the full extent of the law…Let those who I
misinformed forgive me.’ However, at the same time, Chief Sargsyan
made the following outlandish statement, `I still claim that it was a
suicide. He picked up the knife and stabbed himself.’

Who could possibly make such a matter-of-fact statement during the
pre-trial investigation of the case? It sounds like the man personally
participated in that `act of suicide.’ This is just the most recent in
a long list of times when the Police Chief has made his personal
opinions known even before the case investigation has been completed.

What’s going on? Should we really believe that this is the first case
of police torture that people within the department have heard about?
A few months ago, Sasha Davtyan, a resident of the village of
Katnaghbyur in Aragatzotn Marz, recounted how he was roughed up during
a police investigation. So cruel was the treatment meted out by the
police that the man was forced into signing some documents the police
had presented.

It was even sustained in court that the testimony was garnered through
the use of brutality. The same heavy-handed methods were employed to
extract testimony from the Davtyan’s daughters. Sasha Davtyan gave the
names of the cops and investigators that tortured him. Police Chief
Sargsyan knows the facts. Has he punished those responsible? Of course
not.

Perhaps Chief Sargsyan believes that the wounds were self-inflicted.
What is this sickness that is plaguing we Armenians? To commit suicide
in front of the police with the knife they presented. About one month
ago, a Hetq reporter asked if it was true that Serob Der-Boghosyan,
the owner of the company `Metal Prince’ had in fact donated $15,000
for the renovation of the police station in Alaverdi. In response, the
Police Chief coyly suggested, in a word, that Der-Boghosyan was a
patriotic fellow.

If we take a cursory look at the statements made by Police Chief
Sargsyan, we clearly see that he has little grasp of the law,
otherwise he would not try and convince the public that 24 year-old
Vahan Khalafyan killed himself.