The residents of Sisian are excited. After 64-year-old Garnik Muradyan turned to the law enforcement bodies and a criminal case was filed with the Special Investigation Service under the article “Torture”, new individuals appeared, who assured that the acting head of the police, Garik Muradyan, had beaten them.
Grandpa Garnik said that they were first hitting him with a wooden ruler, and, when the ruler broke, they continued to beat him with an iron one. He has multiple injuries to his head and even inside of his ears.
Garik Muradyan’s lawyer Vahan Hovhannisyan denied the information spread in the press; he insisted that his client did not beat the 64-year-old man.
It should be reminded that on April 6 and 7, two extraordinary incidents took place with his participation. 64-year-old Garnik Muradyan was detained at night on suspicion of theft, and from there he was taken to Sisian hospital with injuries. The person who beat him was Garik Muradyan, the acting head of the Sisian police department. The 64-old citizen reported that he had been tortured by Garik Muradyan, the head of the police, forcing him to “confess” that he has committed the theft.
On April 7, police used violence against Martin Saryan, a member of the Sisian Council of Elders, and his father and cousin Armen Harutyunyan, in front of the same Sisian police station. The latter were taken to hospital with injuries.
And now, one of the residents of Sisian, who is accused of stealing, turned to Garnik Muradyan’s lawyer Lusine Zeynalyan and told her that Garik Muradyan, the head of the Sisian police department, had beaten him like Grandpa Garnik.
The citizen, whose name has not been released yet, was suspected by police of stealing workman tools.
The sister of the injured citizen reported the incident to the police on February 23.
“He was taken and beaten in connection with the theft of some tools. After being beaten and cursed, a video was shot at the police station, in which he said that he had not been beaten. In reality, he was forced to do so. But when he went home, his sister saw her brother beaten, in a bad state, and called 1-02. The police conducted a formal investigation into the case, but Garik Muradyan was not held accountable, and the investigator dropped the case. At the stage when the prosecutor’s office was studying the legality of the decision, the incident of Grandpa Garnik took place,” says lawyer Lusine Zeynalyan.
She noted that the police had the same behavior towards both this citizen and Grandpa Garnik. “This is the same handwriting, the same behaviors,” the lawyer said.
We tried to contact Garik Muradyan, the head of the police department, who is convinced that what is happening against him is an organized campaign. Is it true that there is a citizen accused of stealing some tools who was beaten by him?
“He is an apartment thief. When these incidents happened, they went and told him to accuse me. So, he went and said, “I didn’t steal.” How did he take the material evidence and showed them if he was not the one who stole them? This is just an organized, directed campaign against me, because I don’t go into anyone’s pocket, nobody can throw me in their pocket, and some people spend money to get rid of me, to blame me. Please find out the rest from the Police Information Department,” said Garik Muradyan, refusing to answer any further questions.
We have information that Garik Muradyan previously worked in the Martuni Police Station as a Deputy Chief of Operations, and from there he was transferred to the reserve due to rude treatment of citizens. In this connection, the acting head of the police Muradyan said. “Yes, I worked, but there was no incident. Due to the needs of service, I was transferred to the personnel reserve,” he said.
Syuzan Simonyan