YEREVAN. – The demand for handing Valery Permyakov over to Armenia is rightful. 

The Prosecutor General of Armenia, Gevorg Kostanyan, stated the above-said Wednesday in the National Assembly, as he presented the 2014 activity report. 

“It’s natural that there had to be a stressed public attention toward such a tragedy. And I also understand the people who had taken to the streets and rightly demanded that the case be handed over to the justice [system] of the Republic of Armenia [RA]. 

“As for the investigation of the case, at this moment I can only say that an unprecedented situation has been created, [and] which had never occurred in the practice of either the RA law enforcement or the RF [i.e. the Russian Federation] law enforcement. And we are working intensively with the RF law enforcement to find an option in this situation, which [i.e. the option] will be consistent with the norms of international law. 

“I assure you that not solely the emotions, but the attitudes and expectations of us all are the same on this matter,” Kostanyan specifically noted.

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 Gyumri, stands accused in this crime. Permyakov was apprehended by the Russian border guards, and near the Armenian-Turkish border.

On February 3, Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan had petitioned to Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, with a request that the criminal proceedings launched on this brutal murder be handed over to Armenian law enforcement. But this petition was denied.