YEREVAN. – Zhamanak daily spoke with well-known Russian human rights activist Sergei Krivenko.
“Do you rule out the option that they are deliberately doing so that [Russian soldier Valery] Permyakov [, who is the accused in the recent murder of seven people in Armenia’s Gyumri city,] goes to a mental hospital, and not to jail?
“That’s why I stressed that we demand an open and transparent investigation. The Armenian investigators likewise must be permitted to participate in all this, to get familiarized with all the documents.
“This crime expressly requires that the investigation be conducted openly and transparently. Otherwise, people will always have doubts that this was devised to send Permyakov to a mental hospital.
“I don’t rule out that a political decision was adopted in the matter of declaring Permyakov mentally ill. Unfortunately, such a thing could happen. [But] I hope that our [Russian] investigators will work conscientiously and fairly, at least in this case,” Zhamanak wrote citing Sergei Krivenko.
As reported earlier, six members of the Avetisyan family—including a two-year-old girl—were shot dead, and a six-month-old baby was wounded in their house in Gyumri on January 12; and the baby boy died in hospital on January 19.
Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian Military Base in the city, stands accused in this crime. Permyakov was apprehended by the Russian border guards near the Armenian-Turkish border on the same night, he was arrested on January 14, and he is held in custody at the Russian military base.
The soldier is charged under Russian law, with “the murder of more than two people” and “desertion with a service weapon.” And on January 21, the Investigative Committee of Armenia also filed a criminal charge against Permyakov, and with “premeditated murder of two or more persons.” The Russian soldier has accepted the charges.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia had stated earlier, however, that Valery Permyakov will face justice under Russian law, and this information had provoked a wave of protests in Armenia, especially in Gyumri and capital city Yerevan, and with a demand that Permyakov be handed over to the Armenian law enforcement.
