Today the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued the decision on the case of ten-year-old Derenik Gasparyan who died following a beating at a school in Charentsavan eleven years ago.

The ECHR doesn’t believe the right of the pupil to life was violated. “Consequently, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the school’s authorities had failed to comply with their obligation under Article 2 to provide the requisite standard of protection for Derenik G.’s life,” the ECHR’s press release states.

In the complaint filed with the ECHR, the pupil's relatives complained that Derenik G. had died as a result of the failure of the school’s authorities to properly perform their duty to protect his life while he was under their supervision and that the domestic authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation into his death.

With regard to this, the ECHR stated that there had been serious shortcomings and delays in the investigation into the circumstances of the school incident which had resulted in Derenik’s death.

“The questioning of witnesses, collection of evidence and institution of criminal proceedings had not been done in a timely manner and there had been omissions at the very initial stages, prior to the institution of the criminal proceedings,” the press release reads.

The ECHR has obliged Armenia to pay the pupil's family EUR 24,000 for improper investigation.