Charges Filed Against Four Police Officials; Investigative Committee Completes Inquiry

The inquiry regarding the head of the Davitashen division of the Police of the Republic of Armenia and three other police officials has been completed. This information was reported by the Special Investigative Service.

According to the SIS, the head of the Davitashen division, Mkrtych Varosyan, deputy head Arayik Ghazaryan, and the operative officer of the criminal investigation group, Andranik Khachatryan, have been charged with abuse of official powers, while senior inspector Hakob Hakobyan faces charges of misusing official powers and forgery.

The criminal case against them has been forwarded to the supervising prosecutor with a recommendation for approval and further submission to the court.

The SIS statement is as follows: During the inquiry conducted within the framework of a criminal case initiated by the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, it was established that Mkrtych Varosyan, Arayik Ghazaryan, and Andranik Khachatryan, by exceeding their official powers, formed a criminal agreement with Edgar Gevorgyan, who had been convicted of theft and released from punishment. Specifically, they offered Edgar Gevorgyan, for a meager reward, to commit crimes stipulated by Article 177, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, promising to persuade the victims to refrain from filing complaints, thereby exempting E. Gevorgyan from criminal liability, while the stolen property remained in his control.

As a result, under the protection of the aforementioned officials, Edgar Gevorgyan committed 15 thefts and attempted thefts from parked cars in the Ajapnyak and Davitashen administrative districts of Yerevan during 2019-2020, with materials prepared regarding these incidents in the investigative department of the Mashtots division of the Police of Armenia.

On March 19, 2020, the preparation of materials concerning these events was assigned to senior inspector Hakob Hakobyan. However, he deliberately failed to fulfill his duty to investigate these incidents in accordance with the law and accommodated the requests of Arayik Ghazaryan and Mkrtych Varosyan, creating artificial grounds for not initiating criminal proceedings against Edgar Gevorgyan by composing official documents containing manifestly false information.

For the commission of the aforementioned criminal acts, Mkrtych Varosyan, Arayik Ghazaryan, and Andranik Khachatryan have been charged under Part 1 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, while Hakob Hakobyan faces charges under Parts 1 of Articles 308 and 314 of the Criminal Code. The investigative actions concerning them have been completed.

The case has been submitted to the supervising prosecutor with a recommendation for approval and submission to the court.