May 12, 2010 is the third anniversary of Levon Gulyan's tragic death

May 12, 2010 is the third anniversary of Levon Gulyan's tragic death.  3 human rights organizations issued the following joint statement.

Yerevan Prosecutor's Office launched a criminal case for the death of Levon Gulyan at the yard of the RA Police Department administrative building by the Article 110, part 1 of the RA Criminal Code (causing someone to commit suicide). Since December 12, 2007 the case had been investigated by the RA Special Investigation Service.

On March 12, 2008 G. Petrosyan, senior investigator of the RA Special Investigation Service, made a decision on dropping the above case due to a lack of corpus delicti.

After the protest by the victim's legal successor the Yerevan city Kentron and Nork-Marash communities' court of general jurisdiction decided on June 6, 2008 to abolish the above decision and restart legal proceedings.

On July 21, 2008 the RA Criminal Court of Appeal dismissed the protest of the prosecutor and left the decision of the first instance court unchanged.

On August 16, 2008 the preliminary investigation of the case had been restarted again by senior investigator of the RA Special Investigation Service G. Petrosyan.

On April 16, 2009 the investigator again made a decision to drop the case due to a lack of corpus delicti.

On June 2, 2009 representatives of the victim's legal successor protested the above decision at the RA Prosecutor General's Office. On June 29, 2009 they received the decision of Z. Tadevosyan, Senior Prosecutor of the RA Prosecutor General's Office, on dismissing the protest of victim's legal successor's representatives against the decision to drop the case. 

On July 3, 2009 victim's legal successor's representatives protested the above decision by Z. Tadevosyan at the Yerevan city Kentron and Nork-Marash communities' court of general jurisdiction.

On December 2, 2009 the court dismissed the victim's legal successor's representatives' protests on abolishing the June 9, 2009 decision by Z. Tadevosyan and April 16, 2009 decision by G. Petrosyan and restarting the legal proceedings. 

On December 11, 2009 victim's legal successor's representatives protested the above decision at the RA Criminal Court of Appeal.

On February 5, 2010 the RA Criminal Court of Appeal dismissed victim's legal successor's representatives' protest and left the decision of the court of first instance unchanged.

On February 25, 2010 victim's legal successor's representatives referred to the Court of Cassation against the decision of the Court of Appeal.

On April 2, 2010 the Criminal Chamber of the RA Court of Cassation decided to accept to the legal proceedings of the Court of Cassation the cassation protest of victim's legal successor's representatives A. Karakhanyan and H. Ghukasyan against the February 5, 2010 decision of the RA Criminal Court of Appeal.

By the above decision the RA Court of Cassation has actually agreed with the substantiations presented by the victim's legal successor's representatives to accept the protest for legal proceedings. In particular, the protest specifies: 

1) The reviewed court act obviously contradicts the previous decision of the Court of Cassation.

While presenting the substantiations of the protest it has been mentioned that when dismissing the decision of the preliminary investigation body on dropping the criminal case the court of first instance, in order to substantiate its conclusions, in its decision of June 6, 2008 had referred to some clauses of the May 23, 2008 decision number CP-17/08 by the RA Court of Cassation that had precedent significance. In particular, it has been mentioned that the preliminary investigation of the above case had not been accomplished in a proper manner and hence it was inefficient; responsible persons were not revealed and punished; not all evidence connected with the accident were collected (some high ranking police officers were not questioned, some were questioned 5 days after the incident, witnesses of  L. Gulyan's case were not immediately isolated from each other which did not exclude their possible meeting and mutual agreement concerning the case /points 35 and 37 of  decision number CP-17/08/).

The court did not take into account the requirement of obligatoriness of the court acts that came in force, including that of the RA Court of Cassation, and delivered a verdict contradicting factual circumstances recorded in them and given substantiations.

2) Court of Appeal made an obvious judicial error that can and has caused serious consequences.

When presenting substantiations of the protest, manifestations of the judicial error   committed by the Court of Appeal have also been mentioned - material and judicial law violations that affected the result of the case. The above judicial error caused serious consequences since due to it police officials who, abusing their authority, without legal grounds, beyond the framework of proper legal procedures had forcibly brought Levon Gulyan, a person with a status of a witness but actually deprived of freedom, who was in good physical and mental health, to the RA Police Department building where he died in unclarified circumstances, went unpunished.

Under the circumstances not only the criminal procedure legislation goals defined by Article 2 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code were not provided (bodies providing criminal procedures shall take all measures that any person that committed an act not allowed by criminal code is revealed and in cases specified by criminal law and in order specified by criminal procedure is called to account), but also international responsibilities undertaken by the Republic of Armenia have been violated, namely - the requirements of the 1950 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The existence of such judicial act that entered into force can be a serious blow to the international prestige of the Republic of Armenia and undermine the basis of criminal justice operative in RA.  

Our organizations express their deep concern about the atmosphere of impunity in Armenia.

The fact that no official has been until now called to account for Levon Gulyan's death confirms existence of the atmosphere of impunity and leads to new cases. On April 13, 2010 Vahan Khalafyan, brought to the police as a suspect in theft, died at the Charentsavan Police Department due to knife stabs. There are trustworthy data that at the police department he as well as three other witnesses brought there in the same case were subjected to torture.  Unfortunately cases of torture in police departments are revealed mainly when the person subjected to torture dies. After each such case law enforcement bodies try to lay all responsibility on the deceased person. Law enforcement bodies lack the understanding that it is they that carry the primary and main responsibility for any death that occurred at police departments despite circumstances of the death.

We call RA authorities:

• Carry out immediate transparent and efficient investigation into Levon Gulyan's and Vahan Khalafyan's death;
• Make sure that the guilty stand before competent, independent and unbiased court in accordance with national and international law;
• Provide equal investigation also for acts of the high ranking officials who did not manage to prevent such cases and thus have supported the deepening of the atmosphere of impunity.

Armenian Helsinki Committee
Civil Society Institute
Helsinki Citizen's Assembly Vanadzor Office