RA Prosecutor General had a meeting with the Commissioner for Human Rights

On January 20, 2010 RA Prosecutor General A. Hovsepyan had a meeting with the delegation headed by Thomas Hammarberg the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. The employees of the RA General Prosecutor’s Office and the RA Special Investigation Service as well as representatives of international organizations participated in the meeting.

The results of the preliminary investigation of the criminal cases initiated on March 1-2, 2008 mass disorders and the deaths of 10 persons were discussed during the meeting. The Prosecutor General described to the Commissioner for Human Rights the process of the preliminary investigation of the criminal cases initiated on March 1-2, 2008 mass disorders and the deaths of 10 persons.

A. Hovsepyan thanked Mr. T. Hammarberg for rendering assistance to the preliminary investigation body that is for suggesting the services of the specialist from Ireland. The Prosecutor General highlighted the work done by this specialist and hoped that Mr. T. Hammarberg’s authority would contribute to the strengthening of public confidence in the expert opinion.

In particular A. Hovsepyan mentioned that both the specialist and the conclusion sent from the Russian Federation stated that it was technically impossible to identify the bullets shot from the “Cheryomukha-7” gas grenade.

The Prosecutor General also presented to Mr. Hammarberg the work carried out in the expertise of weapons registered in the RA Police and said that both the registered weapons and the ones in the warehouses had been sent to expertise. According to the results of the expertise there were not such weapons in the Police from which had been shot the bullets. A. Hovsepyan also mentioned that the bullets taken from the dead bodies were kept and if any expert expressed desire to carry out double expertise the bullets would be provided to him.

The Prosecutor General also mentioned that he had tasked the head of the investigation body carrying out the preliminary investigation of the criminal cases to investigate the lawfulness of the Police actions and give legal assessment to the actions of the Police in general and the policemen as well in order to provide objectiveness, comprehensiveness and completeness of the preliminary investigation and to find out the circumstances reasoning or justifying the responsibility of the accused for the deaths and bodily injuries during the mass disorders. A. Hovsepyan informed that 4 policemen had been accused for exceeding official authority.

Thomas Hammarberg the Commissioner for Human Rights thanked the General Prosecutor for the meeting and hoped that Armenian authorities would carry out sufficient work in order to detect the 10 deaths cases resulting from March 1-2 mass disorders. A, Hovsepyan thanked T. Hammarberg and stated that great work had been carried out to detect the 10 deaths cases resulting from March 1-2 mass disorders and the preliminary investigation was still continued.