YEREVAN. - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will render a judgment on the case concerning Vahan Khalafyan, who died in Charentsavan Police Department seven years ago.

Attorney of Khalafyan and his relatives, Artak Zeynalyan, issued a statement on this occasion.

According to him, on 13 April 2010, Vahan was taken to the Charentsavan Investigative Department of the Armenian Police, where he was pressed and beaten to confess the fact of theft, following which he died under circumstances undisclosed by the investigation.

According to an official version, in the presence of three policemen, Vahan allegedly took a kitchen knife out of a shelf, raised his clothes, made a scratch on his belly by the edge of the knife, after which he stabbed himself two times and died in a hospital without gaining consciousness.

In Zeynalyan’s words, in Charentsavan Police Department Vahan was humiliated and beaten up by Head of Criminal Investigation Department, Police Major Ashot Harutyunyan.

The incident took place in the office of Head of Police Prophylactics Division, Kamo Mirumyan, where there were three more persons besides the deceased, namely Special Investigative Agent of Criminal Investigation Division, Senior Police Lieutenant Mores Hayrapetyan, Police Major Aram Davtyan and  Senior Special Investigative Agent, Police Major Gagik Ghazaryan.

Criminal case was launched against all three of them.

According to the judgment of the General Jurisdiction Court of Armenia’s Kotayk province of 29 November 2010, Ashot Harutyunyan was sentenced to 8 years in prison for abusing his official capacity, Mores Hayrapetyan to 2 years of conditional imprisonment, while the two other policemen, Garik Davtyan and Gagik Ghazaryan, were acquitted.

The Appeal Court applied amnesty in respect of Ashot Harutyunyan and Mores Hayrapetyan, mitigating their punishment.

Ashot Harutyunyan, the only person imprisoned within the framework of the case, served his punishment first in a semi-open, and then open regime (he only spent the nights in the detention facility), following which an amnesty act was enacted towards him and he was set free. Thereafter, Ashot Harutyunyan left Armenia for permanent residence abroad.

Zeynalyan also stressed that according to Vahan’s relatives and the society, his death was caused by a blow on his head, while the stabs on the belly of the corpse only aimed to create an illusion of suicide.

The case was brought to the ECHR on behalf of Khalafyan’s close relatives.