YEREVAN. – The Chief of Police of Armenia, Valeri Osipyan, reflected on the matter as to why Investigative Committee former deputy Vahagn Harutyunyan, who is charged along the lines of the criminal case into what had occurred in capital city Yerevan in March 2008 and is being searched internationally, is not arrested and extradited to Armenia, in the case when he is giving interviews to international media without restraint.

Armenian News-NEWS.am asked Ospiyan the reason for the above-said, and the police chief responded: “There are people who are searched for, for whom years are needed. There are circumstances when there are people who are searched for, and who are being newly found months, years later.”

To the remark that Harutyunyan’s whereabouts is known: Russia, the Armenian chief of police responded: “We collaborate closely with our associates.”

Osipyan, however, did not respond when asked whether he saw any intent that the Russian law enforcement officials were not collaborating with their Armenian counterparts in the cases of ex-Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan and Vahagn Harutyunyan, alike. “It perhaps is a coincidence,” he said.

Former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan has been charged in Armenia within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others. But since Harutyunyan is not in Armenia, an international arrest warrant for him was declared.

The Special Investigation Service had informed that Vahagn Harutyunyan had been included as a defendant for falsifying evidence along the lines of a criminal case into a grave crime in connection with the March 2008 events in Yerevan, and an international search was declared for him.

On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the then recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.