Preliminary investigation of the case of murder of compulsory military serviceman Narek Adibekyan has been completed a month ago. The case has been sent to the court, but, through their lawyer, the relatives demand the Prosecutor General to recall and re-examine it, appointing another investigative group for the new investigation. They are convinced that the murder is not disclosed, the crime has been concealed to release the murderers from accountability. They are sure that their son is not a rapist.
The main witness of the murder, K. Kh., whose testimonies are the basis of the accusation, according to the investigators’ version, was sexually assaulted, insulted by Adibekyan, eventually was unable to tolerate the humiliation and killed him in an afflicted state of mind. However, lawyer representing the interests of Adibekyan Hayarpi Sargsyan has all grounds to believe that the reality is different.
Many traumas and injuries have been found in various parts of the body of K. Kh.: in the palms, mouth, on the cheeks, nose, testicles and buttocks. However, there is no evidence whatsoever that they were caused by Narek Adibekyan but not, let’s say, the officers of the military unit. Moreover, from the forensic conclusion follows that sexual activities were committed at the military unit, not at the positions as reported by the investigators.
In his complaint, Hayarpi Sargsyan mentioned a number of essential facts that deny the official version of the preliminary investigative body.
Investigation revealed seven shotgun entries and one touch gunshot wound on Adibekyan’s body. According to K. Kh.’s testimonies, he shot 16 shots in Narek’s direction. At the scene, only 4 shells from K. Kh.’s shotgun were found. The rest, according to the investigators, have not been found because they were thrown into a neutral space where search activities were not carried out due to the fact that those spaces were in the enemy’s field of vision. This has not been proven by any expert or examination.
At the scene shells were found that were shot by at least four or more guns, that is, a skirmish occurred involving at least four or five different guns. Shells were found that did not correspond to K. Kh.’s weapon. No examination to figure out who and why opened fire at the scene was conducted.
There were scratches and cuts on the forehead, armpit joints and ribs of the killed soldier; his clothes were torn, which could indicate that he had been subjected to violence before being
killed and then dragged on the ground to another place. However, no investigation has been carried out on this issue either. Why? The preliminary investigation body responds: the reason for it was that no traces of blood have been found on the ground. The soldier Tornik Ginosyan, who, according to the preliminary investigation, was not at the scene, was asked about Narek’s facial and armpit injuries. “In fact, instead of the expert they turned to Ginosyan, giving him an expert status,” says criminalist Ruben Martirosyan.
Ethyl alcohol has been found in Adibekyan’s blood, but with whom, when did he drink it, nobody tried to investigate.
In November, Adibekyan’s successors’s representative lodged a complaint to the Prosecutor General, listing these and many other irregularities and flaws, which were made by No. 3 Garrison Investigation Department of the Military Prosecutor’s Office. Without responding to the complaint, the preliminary investigation was announced completed, and the response, which came a month later, was merely a line of excuses, with had no connection with the questions raised by the lawyer.
K. Kh. raped by unknown persons was charged under Part 1 of Article 105 of the RA Criminal Code “Murder committed by the aggrieved victim”. The murdered Narek Adibekyan was charged with Articles 4, 359, “Violation of Code of Conduct for Military Relationships …”; Articles 139 on “Sexual Violence”, 182 on “Extortion,” and 360 on “Insulting the Officers”.
He was the young man who came to Armenia from Russia in order to serve in the Armenian army, had forbidden his parents to try to exempt him from the military service, immediately was drafted and started to serve at the Yeghnikner military unit, was awarded by the commander for exemplary service, and enjoyed great reputation among the fellow soldiers.
Syuzan Simonyan