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NO ARRESTS AS SLAIN ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR BURIED
By Karine Simonian in Vanadzor
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 27 2007
A senior Armenian prosecutor murdered over the weekend was buried on
Monday in the presence of top government and law-enforcement officials
who pledged to identify and punish the perpetrators of the latest
high-profile killing.
Albert Ghazarian, the chief prosecutor of the northern Lori region,
was shot dead outside his home in the regional capital Vanadzor
on Saturday night. Law-enforcement authorities swiftly launched a
criminal investigation conducted by a team of prosecutors, police
officers and investigators from the National Security Service (NSS).
A spokesman for President Robert Kocharian issued a special statement
the next morning strongly condemning the murder. The Office of
the Prosecutor-General said "all necessary measures to clarify all
circumstances of the crime and identify the guilty." No arrests were
reported as of Monday evening.
Ghazarian's funeral in Vanadzor was attended by Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian, Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian and Prosecutor-General
Aghvan Hovsepian. The latter cut short his vacation to personally
oversee the ongoing inquiry.
Hovsepian's written message to his subordinates was read out during
the funeral by Deputy Prosecutor-General Mnatsakan Sargsian. It
described the killing as a "desperate reaction from criminals who
are in their death throes." "I am confident that all circumstances
of the crime will be fully uncovered and the guilty will get their
deserved punishment," read the message.
Investigators have so far refused to be drawn on any theories of the
crime considered by them. It is not clear if any of those theories
relates to Ghazarian's strained relationship with Vanadzor Mayor Samvel
Darpinian. It was exposed when the slain prosecutor's son-in-law,
Gagik Hovsepian, was controversially defeated by Darpinian during the
last mayoral election held in Armenia's third largest city. Ghazarian
subsequently clashed with Darpinian over what he considered illegal
allocations of municipal land.
The Vanadzor mayor was also among several local officials, including
Lori's former Governor Henrik Kochinian, implicated in a embezzlement
case brought by the Lori prosecutor's office last June. They are
suspected of a large-scale theft of equipment from a local sewage
works which allegedly occurred during the 1990s.
A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, Sona Truzian,
refused to specify whether the investigators see a possible link
between this and the murder. "In the interests of the investigation,
no information about steps taken by investigators will be released
for the time being," she told RFE/RL. "As for the theories of the
crime discussed during the investigation, they are not subject to
publication."
Darpinian, meanwhile, was conspicuously absent from the funeral.
Witnesses said an official from the mayor's office who visited
Ghazarian's house to offer his and his boss's condolences met with
a hostile reception from the slain prosecutor's relatives.
By Karine Simonian in Vanadzor
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug 27 2007
A senior Armenian prosecutor murdered over the weekend was buried on
Monday in the presence of top government and law-enforcement officials
who pledged to identify and punish the perpetrators of the latest
high-profile killing.
Albert Ghazarian, the chief prosecutor of the northern Lori region,
was shot dead outside his home in the regional capital Vanadzor
on Saturday night. Law-enforcement authorities swiftly launched a
criminal investigation conducted by a team of prosecutors, police
officers and investigators from the National Security Service (NSS).
A spokesman for President Robert Kocharian issued a special statement
the next morning strongly condemning the murder. The Office of
the Prosecutor-General said "all necessary measures to clarify all
circumstances of the crime and identify the guilty." No arrests were
reported as of Monday evening.
Ghazarian's funeral in Vanadzor was attended by Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian, Justice Minister Gevorg Danielian and Prosecutor-General
Aghvan Hovsepian. The latter cut short his vacation to personally
oversee the ongoing inquiry.
Hovsepian's written message to his subordinates was read out during
the funeral by Deputy Prosecutor-General Mnatsakan Sargsian. It
described the killing as a "desperate reaction from criminals who
are in their death throes." "I am confident that all circumstances
of the crime will be fully uncovered and the guilty will get their
deserved punishment," read the message.
Investigators have so far refused to be drawn on any theories of the
crime considered by them. It is not clear if any of those theories
relates to Ghazarian's strained relationship with Vanadzor Mayor Samvel
Darpinian. It was exposed when the slain prosecutor's son-in-law,
Gagik Hovsepian, was controversially defeated by Darpinian during the
last mayoral election held in Armenia's third largest city. Ghazarian
subsequently clashed with Darpinian over what he considered illegal
allocations of municipal land.
The Vanadzor mayor was also among several local officials, including
Lori's former Governor Henrik Kochinian, implicated in a embezzlement
case brought by the Lori prosecutor's office last June. They are
suspected of a large-scale theft of equipment from a local sewage
works which allegedly occurred during the 1990s.
A spokeswoman for the Prosecutor-General's Office, Sona Truzian,
refused to specify whether the investigators see a possible link
between this and the murder. "In the interests of the investigation,
no information about steps taken by investigators will be released
for the time being," she told RFE/RL. "As for the theories of the
crime discussed during the investigation, they are not subject to
publication."
Darpinian, meanwhile, was conspicuously absent from the funeral.
Witnesses said an official from the mayor's office who visited
Ghazarian's house to offer his and his boss's condolences met with
a hostile reception from the slain prosecutor's relatives.