YEREVAN. – A capital city Yerevan court of first instance granted the petition of the preliminary investigation agency and reached a decision to arrest the former chief of staff of the Armenia Police internal troops, Gegham Petrosyan, who is charged with murder along the lines of the criminal case on the events of March 2008 in Yerevan.

The court also deemed the investigator’s decision to detain Petrosyan to be lawful.

Police Colonel Gegham Petrosyan has been charged with the murder of Zakar Hovhannisyan during the aforesaid events, and he was detained Tuesday within the framework of the abovementioned criminal case. Gegham Petrosyan was deputy commander of the police troops—that is, the former chief of staff of the police internal troops—as of March 1, 2008.

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 presidential election on February 19, 2008. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes.

To this day, no one had been brought to criminal account for these ten deaths.