Harutyun Petrosyan, a resident of Gyumri, a former police officer and a detainee at Vardashen penitentiary, was brutally beaten by Karen Gevorgyan and Arthur Hakobyan, officers of the Kumayri Police Department of the Gyumri Police. Forrights.am was informed about the incident by the family members of the former police officer. They presented numerous medical records, including the history of the disease provided by Gyumri Medical Center, the history of ambulances requested, documents containing numerous injuries and health problems that have been discovered by doctors examining Harutyun Petrosyan.
In one of the documents, beating is directly mentioned as the cause of abrasions and the brain trauma revealed by the medical examination. Harutyun Petrosyan made a statement that he was beaten at Kumayri Police Department. His relatives have videotaped how he was transported to the hospital in serious health condition. In that video, which is published here, he tells us that the police have struck him and blasphemed.
Police Chief Ashot Aharonyan denies the fact of beating: “Nothing like that happened, especially today. The phenomenon of bringing somebody in and beating him has been eliminated.” Petrosyan’s daughter, Svetlana Petrosyan, claims that nothing has changed in Gyumri after the revolution. “Everything is the same for us. The policemen continue to brutally beat people, and the citizens apply to the police only in extreme cases: each person solves his own problems by himself.” She told us how her father was taken to prison for causing his neighbor serious bodily injuries. The story of the young girl clearly shows that there is no law enforcement system in Gyumri, and everyone relies on himself/herself, and the most powerful means of achieving justice is considered beating and slaughter.
Petrosyan’s neighbor used to go Moscow and bring things for sale. “Our neighbor Hovo had brought some goods, and he did not give to his master. Those guys, 20 to 30 people, beat him, his parents, his family, and beat him for two whole days and eventually took the goods. They thought my dad had shown the hiding place of their goods. In the morning when my daddy was standing at the gate seeing my mom off, Lyova Stamboltsyan, the father of Hovo, came cursing my mother, hit her, and her earing fell down. Lyova hit the head of my mom, grabbed her arm, that’s when daddy got involved: he hit Lyova, Lyova fell, his intestine burst. There was a fight between them.”
On September 28 Harutyun Petrosyan was taken to the Kumayri Police Department. “The head of the department and the deputy head, Karen Gevorgyan and Arthur Hakobyan, beat my father. He was in such a bad condition; his blood pressure reached 220, they were frightened that he might die, so they called an ambulance, but did not let them provide a medical treatment. My brother went after dad to the division. Three times we called ambulances on 28th and 29th, but they did not let my father to receive medical help. We demanded that they send him to the Mush police department so that the beatings might stop,” Svetlana Petrosyan says, presenting the ambulance calls papers.
It was only after transferring Harutyun Petrosyan to the Mush Police Department that it became possible to record his bodily injuries. Apparently, the Mush department staff did not hinder the medical examination to avoid possible allegations.
In a statement issued on October 10, Gyumri Medical Center states that Harutyun Petrosyan applied to the Center on September 28 with the following diagnosis: “Hypertension, crevice wounds in the top of the head”. According to another document, Harutyun Petrosyan is in a state of “post brain trauma, closed brain injury, concussion”.
The family does not apply to the Shirak prosecutor’s office, confident that police and prosecutors are connected, cooperating and would not harm each other.” An ambulance has recorded even a kidney problem, and one of the papers directly states that the reason is the beating. But everybody here are connected with each other. I cannot protect my parent. No one takes into account that my father was just defending my mother,” resents Svetlana Petrosyan. She is collecting documents from September 28, and has numerous videos through which she hopes to prove the crime committed by the police.
“After several ambulances went to the Kumayri police department before they decided to let my father be transferred to the Mush department. My father was not immediately admitted in the Mush department because of his injuries. After being taken, they put down in their records that there were abrasions on him, wrote down what problems they observed, the pressure of 220-230, scratches on the head, legs, and kidney problems. In the Mush department too, several ambulance calls were made, after which he was transferred to “Gyumri Medical Center” and then to “Vardashen” penitentiary where they recorded the injuries and wounds of the detainee.
P.S. We expect that the prosecutor’s office will verify the facts mentioned in this publication, examine the attached materials and make appropriate conclusions.
Syuzan Simonyan