Tweet
ARMENIAN POLICE ACCUSED OF DEADLY TORTURE
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
May 14 2007
Relatives of a young man who died in police custody at the weekend
appealed to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian on Monday to thwart
what they see as attempts by the Armenian police to cover up the
extraordinary case of brutal torture.
Levon Ghulian died in mysterious circumstances on Saturday while being
questioned by the police as a presumed witness of a deadly gunfight in
Yerevan reported earlier last week. The police claim that during the
interrogation the 30-year-old father of two tried to escape through
a window but slipped and fell to the ground from the second floor of
a police building in Yerevan.
Ghulian's close relatives strongly deny this version of events,
saying that he was tortured to death by police interrogators. State
prosecutors have launched a criminal inquiry into the incident
which has cast a fresh spotlight on the problem of police brutality
in Armenia. Local and international watchdogs say the practice is
widespread.
"They probably hit him in the head with something and he died,"
Ghulian's uncle, Toros Papazian, told RFE/RL. "They just don't want
to admit that he died in a police office."
Papazian said his nephew's body bore traces of violence such as
a broken rib and thigh bone and bruises on his heels. "Levon was
accidentally tortured to death before being thrown out of the window,"
he said.
Ghulian was the owner of a restaurant in Yerevan's southern Shengavit
district near which a man was shot dead on May 9 in a reported dispute
between two groups of unknown individuals. He was first detained and
questioned at Shengavit's police department.
"They were forcing Levon to name the murderer," Papazian said. "He
didn't know that, but they kept beating him."
Papazian added that Ghulian was for days repeatedly interrogated by the
Shengavit police and prosecutors before being taken to the national
Police Service's Directorate General of Criminal Investigations on
Saturday. He said the deputy chief of the department, Hovik Tamamian,
personally drove him to his office.
In a joint letter, members of the dead man's extended family asked
Sarkisian to interfere in the inquiry. "The prime minister was saying
during the election campaign that all the guilty must be punished and
that Armenia must become a law-abiding country," explained Papazian.
"I've heard that my brother wasn't the first victim [of police
torture] and that there have been such cases before," Ghulian's
grieving sister Marine told RFE/RL. "I don't know want the relatives
[of other victims] did. I am appealing to them to join us in fighting
against such injustice."
"Let my brother be the last victim," she added.
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
May 14 2007
Relatives of a young man who died in police custody at the weekend
appealed to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian on Monday to thwart
what they see as attempts by the Armenian police to cover up the
extraordinary case of brutal torture.
Levon Ghulian died in mysterious circumstances on Saturday while being
questioned by the police as a presumed witness of a deadly gunfight in
Yerevan reported earlier last week. The police claim that during the
interrogation the 30-year-old father of two tried to escape through
a window but slipped and fell to the ground from the second floor of
a police building in Yerevan.
Ghulian's close relatives strongly deny this version of events,
saying that he was tortured to death by police interrogators. State
prosecutors have launched a criminal inquiry into the incident
which has cast a fresh spotlight on the problem of police brutality
in Armenia. Local and international watchdogs say the practice is
widespread.
"They probably hit him in the head with something and he died,"
Ghulian's uncle, Toros Papazian, told RFE/RL. "They just don't want
to admit that he died in a police office."
Papazian said his nephew's body bore traces of violence such as
a broken rib and thigh bone and bruises on his heels. "Levon was
accidentally tortured to death before being thrown out of the window,"
he said.
Ghulian was the owner of a restaurant in Yerevan's southern Shengavit
district near which a man was shot dead on May 9 in a reported dispute
between two groups of unknown individuals. He was first detained and
questioned at Shengavit's police department.
"They were forcing Levon to name the murderer," Papazian said. "He
didn't know that, but they kept beating him."
Papazian added that Ghulian was for days repeatedly interrogated by the
Shengavit police and prosecutors before being taken to the national
Police Service's Directorate General of Criminal Investigations on
Saturday. He said the deputy chief of the department, Hovik Tamamian,
personally drove him to his office.
In a joint letter, members of the dead man's extended family asked
Sarkisian to interfere in the inquiry. "The prime minister was saying
during the election campaign that all the guilty must be punished and
that Armenia must become a law-abiding country," explained Papazian.
"I've heard that my brother wasn't the first victim [of police
torture] and that there have been such cases before," Ghulian's
grieving sister Marine told RFE/RL. "I don't know want the relatives
[of other victims] did. I am appealing to them to join us in fighting
against such injustice."
"Let my brother be the last victim," she added.