NEW SITUATION IN GYUMRI MANSLAUGHTER CASE

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – 03 February 2015, 18:33

The Russian Interfax Agency has informed that agreement has been
reached between Armenia and Russia over the trial of Valery Permyakov
accused of the manslaughter in Gyumri in the garrison court of the
Russian military base.

After the manslaughter the Armenian prosecutor announced, including
for calming the angry public, that Permyakov will be tried in Armenia.

And the public was angry because a few hours after catching the
criminal it was announced that handing him to the Armenian jurisdiction
is out of discussion.

So far the investigation has not answered the questions of the Armenian
citizens on the manslaughter and jurisdiction. It has caused more
questions, including how Permyakov appeared in the Russian base after
the Russian border guards had found him when the Russian border guards
are supposed to hand him to the Armenian side. Even the prosecutor
general has announced about this obligation.

However, the Armenian and Russian authorities are not speaking about
it. It is clear that the Russians do not want to speak and the Armenian
government does not want to anger the Russians.

And the obviously unlawful and undignified situation continues when
Russia violates the law of Armenia, its state and national dignity.

In this setting, information comes on an agreement that Permyakov will
be tried in the court of the military base. It is not ruled out that
this news is an attempt to check the Armenian public’s reaction to
understand whether it keeps the potential for protest that existed in
Gyumri on January 14 and 15 and which was clamped down by the police.

Incidentally, the policy actions continued with use of another method.

The participants of the January 14 and 15 actions were invited one
by one to the police to find out who threw stones at the policemen.

Obviously, the purpose was to intimidate people, dissuade them from
attending future massive events.

Apparently, the purpose of the publication by Interfax was to check the
outcome of the clampdown to find out what results the explanatory work
has produced in order to determine the intensity of the next clampdown.

At this point the possible limit of this intensity is rather high. For
example, if Permyakov’s trial is taking place in the Russian military
base, obviously additional problems of transparency of the trial and
accessibility to public will occur. Moreover, provocations during the
trial are not ruled out which will force the Russian side to limit
public access to the trial in the territory of the military base.

The society will thus lose sufficient levers of control over the trial,
which will enable manipulations with the trial, covering up everything
that the Russian side will want to.

Interestingly, a few hours after the news of Interfax the Armenian
prosecutor general’s office announced that Gevorg Kostanyan has applied
to the Russian prosecutor general requesting to hand the case of murder
of the Avetisyan family to the Armenian law enforcement agencies. It
is interesting whether Chaika’s answer will differ from the news on
Interfax or whether this is the case when Saturday started earlier
than Friday.