Moris Hayrapetyan, police agent of the Criminal Investigation Department of Charentsavan Police, has been arrested in the case of 24-year-old Vahan Khalafyan who died of wounds inflicted by knife at the Charentsavan Police Department on April 13.  This information is from the statement spread yesterday by the Special Investigatory Service that now conducts the criminal case.   

«M. Hayrapetyan, police agent of the Criminal Investigation Department of the RA Police Charentsavan Department, has been arrested on April 21 on suspicion of overstepping his official powers and forcing V. Khalafyan to commit suicide," the statement reads.

Whereas, according to Khalafyan's relatives, during the interrogation another police agent by the name Garik was present in the room.

It is worth reminding that on April 13 Vahan Khalafyan was brought to police on suspicion of larceny along with four other young men.

According to the police statement spread the next day, the 24-year-old young man committed suicide in the Charentsavan police investigation room with a kitchen knife taken from the sideboard. However Vahan's relatives are convinced and insist that he was tortured to death at the police.

On April 21 RA Police head Alik Sargsyan in an interview to Radio Liberty again announced that assertions that Vahan Khalafyan was tortured and killed at police department were not true.

In this connection Armenia's ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan in his yesterday's meeting with reporters qualified "unacceptable" Police head Alik Sargsyan's statements that Vahan Khalafyan was unambiguously not tortured but committed suicide.

"One cannot make such announcements since the process is going on and only after the process and experts' investigations it will be clear what and how. In such cases one should abstain from voicing his unambiguous opinion," he said.

The ombudsman expressed his conviction that the Police in any case have to take the responsibility for 24-year-old Vahan Khalafyan's death at Charentsavan police on April 13.

"It does not matter what versions exist. The problem is that this is not the first case when a citizen is taken to the police and dies there. Even if the version suggested by the Police head is true, there still have to be persons responsible for it. What does it mean - the man came to the police and committed suicide there? That will never do! Man's life is terribly devalued," the ombudsman emphasized.