On July 24, forensic examination of the body of Volodya Galoyan, who died in the Hadrut military unit of Artsakh, revealed 22 bodily injuries. This suggests that the young man was severely beaten before his death, but investigators are persistently investigating around the false version of suicide. This version was released by the Investigative Committee just three hours after the incident. According to the report of the penitentiary, an ordinary Volodya Galoyan fired a AK-74 gun in the area adjacent to the underground bunker of the military post, then went away from the position and committed suicide.
A criminal case was launched under Article 34-104 (1) of the RA Criminal Code and Article 110 (1) of the RA Criminal Code for murder attempt and inciting suicide due to regular threats, ill-treatment or degraded personal dignity.
Investigators at the Second Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office have found it proven that a clash over an absurd theme of keeping or not keeping a cell phone occurred between Galoyan and the senior contract officer Ronald Stepanyan, prior to the murder.
All of the witnesses say the same thing: Roland Stepanyan hit Galoyan’s face once with his palm, and Galoyan fired a shotgun at Stepanyan to kill him, but investigators say Roland managed to hide and no bullet touched him.
Taking this into account, the investigating body decided to dismiss the case and not recognize Galoyan as victim, while the victim’s side suggests that the version described by the investigators has nothing to do with reality and that a horrific murder was actually committed. After studying the materials, such conclusion was reached by criminal and military expert and human rights lawyer Ruben Martirosyan.
Examinations of Volodya Galoyan’s body revealed twenty-two injuries to the forehead, upper eyelid, left cheek, a wound on the face, which can be a result of a very severe blow, injuries to the chest, right and left arms, right shoulder, etc.
“A specialist who carried out external examination of the body, whose name and surname are not indicated, does not notice these twenty-two injuries and writes of only one injury. Either he was not a specialist or he was a blind specialist,” says Ruben Martirosyan.
According to forensic doctor Shavarsh Gevorgyan, some of the injuries Galoyan received two to three days before his death and most of them were caused shortly before the murder. The strangest thing is that the chief investigator of the Second Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office M.M. Shirvanyan did not ask the expert how many shots have killed Galoyan.
“Two tubes of gunshot wounds were found in his chin area, and, most likely, more than one bullet has passed through them. Four black spots were found on the left half of the neck, judging from which it may be said that four or more bullets were fired at the boy’s head. Here, in such circumstances, the preliminary investigative body calls this outright murder a suicide. However, on the very first day it was obliged to find out that there were twenty-two bodily injuries on Galoyan’s body, and it had no right to refer to the suicide article,” claims Ruben Martirosyan.
He assures that the scene of the incident is changed and forged. Investigators allegedly found Galoyan’s body in a neutral zone, wrapped in a tent-cloak, and beside him was a rifle. However, no blood traces and no capsules were found around him or beneath him. This means that Galoyan was killed elsewhere, then his body was wrapped in a tent-cloak and put in a neutral zone.
By the way, the preliminary investigation body did not carry out a forensic examination of the weapons of the soldiers, which it was obliged to do to find out from whose weapon Galoyan was killed. The examination also rejected the fact of close shooting. It has been proven that the soldier was shot dead from forty centimeters to one meter [from 16 inch to 3-4 feet] distance, which also refutes the version of suicide.
“Talking about suicide in these conditions is just immoral. Clashes have taken place in this position for three days. This is a group murder, and at the moment we do not know who was involved in the murder,” concludes the expert.
Let us remind that the parents of the killed soldier do not believe that their son committed suicide. They refuse any interrogation, expressing their distrust to the investigating body.
Syuzan Simonyan