New Proceedings Initiated in the Paul Poghosyan Murder Case Based on Newly Discovered Circumstances

New proceedings have been initiated in the murder case of Paul Poghosyan based on newly discovered circumstances. This was stated by Gor Abrahamyan, an adviser to the Armenian Prosecutor General, in response to a question from armtimes.com.

He noted that on September 12, 2019, a request from representatives of Stephen John Newton was sent to the Yerevan Prosecutor's Office for procedural consideration, along with translated documents and a criminal case related to the murder of Paul Poghosyan that occurred on the night of September 24-25, 2001, at the "Aragast" cafe.

An examination of the documents at the Yerevan Prosecutor's Office revealed that a criminal case had been initiated against Agamal Harutyunyan, an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, under Article 100 of the former Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia on September 25, 2001. Harutyunyan was charged under Article 103 of the former Criminal Code for the incident, which resulted in Poghosyan's death after a mutual altercation and subsequent head injury leading to severe bodily harm.

According to the charges, around 12:30 AM on September 25, 2001, in the restroom of "Aragast" cafe, a scuffle occurred between Harutyunyan and Poghosyan, who was under the influence of alcohol. It is alleged that Poghosyan fell backward and struck his head on the tiled floor, leading to his death from a cranial injury. In other words, Harutyunyan displayed criminal negligence which resulted in unintentional homicide.

On February 21, 2002, the Yerevan court found Harutyunyan guilty under the specified article and sentenced him to 2 years of imprisonment, but the sentence was suspended, with a probation period of 1 year imposed instead.

The victim's legal representative contested the verdict, but the appeal was left unexamined.

In the study of the request addressed by Newton’s representatives to the Prosecutor General regarding the incident, it was found that the assertion contained significant information concerning the case that had not been established during the preliminary investigation. Specifically, the information indicates that Poghosyan may have been killed not by negligence but intentionally by Harutyunyan and other unidentified individuals with hooligan motives.

Thus, new circumstances have arisen that could potentially demonstrate that Harutyunyan committed a more serious crime—homicide under aggravating circumstances—than for which he was previously convicted. Furthermore, these circumstances may indicate the involvement of other individuals in the crime, information that was unknown during the investigation of the criminal case.

You can find more details in the original source of the material.