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Armenian Police In Rare Apology Over Torture

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  • Armenian Police In Rare Apology Over Torture

    ARMENIAN POLICE IN RARE APOLOGY OVER TORTURE
    Ruzanna Stepanian

    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article /2029367.html
    30.04.2010

    Armenia -- National police chief Alik Sargsian, undated.

    In an unprecedented public apology, the chief of Armenia's police
    service admitted on Friday misleading the nation about the recent
    scandalous death of a young man in police custody.

    Alik Sargsian said he was "deceived" by his subordinates into thinking
    that Vahan Khalafian was not ill-treated at the police station of
    Charentsavan, a small town in central Armenia.

    "I am going to punish all of my employees who gave me incorrect
    information and thereby put me in an awkward situation," he said
    in a written statement sent to RFE/RL's Armenian service through
    a spokesman.

    The extraordinary statement came the day after Ashot Harutiunian, a
    senior officer at the Charentsavan police arrested earlier this week,
    was formally charged with torturing Khalafian to extract a confession
    about a theft committed in the town. Armenia's Special Investigative
    Service (SIS) said the charge is based on testimony given by other
    local police officers.

    The police categorically denied mistreating Khalafian until then. "I
    want to make clear that there was no torture," Sargsian insisted on
    April 20.

    The police chief, whom President Serzh Sarkisian promoted to the
    rank of lieutenant-general shortly after the April 13 incident, said
    Friday he based those claims on assurances given to him by the police
    department of the Kotayk region, which encompasses Charentsavan.

    "I am saying beforehand that I am not going to defend anyone and that
    all the guilty will be punished," said Sargsian. "I never encouraged
    beatings, there are more proper ways of doing the job."

    "Let those people whom I misinformed with my statements forgive me,"
    he added. "As for those who deceived me, they will be punished with
    all the strictness of the law. I am not going to forgive anyone."

    Still, Sargsian at the same time stuck to police claims that Khalafian
    grabbed a knife from a police officer's drawer and stabbed himself
    to death after the interrogation. "I continue to insist that it was
    a suicide," he said.

    Whether or not the SIS agrees with this claim is not yet clear. The
    law-enforcement body subordinated to state prosecutors said on Thursday
    that will draw a final conclusion about what caused Khalafian's death
    only after the ongoing forensic examinations of his body are over.

    The dead man's relatives insist that the 24-year-old was tortured
    to death -- a claim that was echoed on Friday by Artur Sakunts, a
    human rights campaigner closely monitoring the case. He also backed
    the Khalafian family's claim that forensic medics found at least two
    stab wounds on his stomach.

    "How could a tortured and beaten young man quickly find a knife in
    a room totally unfamiliar to him?" Sakunts told RFE/RL's Armenian
    service. "How did he know where it was kept? Or did they put the
    knife on a table and tell him to kill himself? ... So I believe what
    happened was a murder."

    While welcoming the police apology, Sakunts said Sargsian should have
    gone further and stepped down. "This is not an ordinary incident,"
    he argued. "A person died in police custody. In normal countries,
    the police chief at least resigns in such circumstances. Not to
    mention bearing personal responsibility for his subordinates' abuses."

    "A mere apology can not change the situation," he added.
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