A New Court Hearing Will Be Conducted in the Case of Mher Poghosyan's Murder Committed 26 Years Ago

The RA Court of Appeals had fully granted the appeal submitted by the RA Military Prosecutor's Office on March 5, 2020, regarding the murder case of Mher Poghosyan, which took place 26 years ago at a restaurant complex in the village of Taronik in the Armavir region. The case was annulled by the Ashtarak regional court due to newly emerged circumstances, and it was sent for a new hearing to the First Instance Court of Yerevan, reports Gor Abrahamyan, advisor to the RA Prosecutor General.

“On May 17, 2020, an appeal to the Court of Cassation was submitted by the lawyer of Hrant Grigoryan, requesting the annulment of the RA Court of Appeals’ decision. The Court of Cassation has recently decided to reject the application for cassation and has sent the case to the First Instance Court of Aragatsotn region for consideration. This means that under the light of the newly emerged circumstances, a new court hearing will be conducted in the Mher Poghosyan murder case,” Abrahamyan noted.

It is worth mentioning that on December 19, 1994, the Ashtarak regional court, examining Mher Poghosyan's murder case within one day, rendered a judgment finding Hrant Grigoryan guilty of committing a crime under Article 259.1(B) of the RA Criminal Code, which involves a violation of the rules for handling weapons and ammunition, and sentenced him to one year in prison.

In July 2018, the police department in Vagharshapat received a complaint from the victim’s son, Eduard Poghosyan, stating that H. G. had deliberately murdered his father, M. P., on April 16, 1994, but the actual circumstances of the incident had been distorted. During the preliminary investigation conducted by the RA Investigative Committee's Military Investigative Department, various investigative and procedural actions, as well as operational-search measures, revealed new circumstances that were unknown to the court when the judgment was made. These circumstances provided evidence that the act committed by the convict was more serious than the charges he was convicted for.

In other words, these findings allegedly indicated that Hrant Grigoryan had killed Mher Poghosyan on April 16, 1994, due to hooligan motives and in a manner dangerous to many lives, but he had been convicted only for violating rules regarding weapon handling. In an attempt to conceal this fact, a letter was issued with the signature of the Deputy Minister of Defense of the RA, stating that M. Poghosyan had died during combat operations, and a personal file was created in his name at the Ministry of Defense. Furthermore, M. Poghosyan was posthumously awarded a medal for bravery by President R. Kocharyan.

Based on the results of the preliminary investigation, a decision was made on December 10, 2018, by the division overseeing particularly important military cases of the Military Central Prosecutor’s Office, to initiate proceedings due to the newly emerged circumstances. On February 20, 2019, the RA Military Prosecutor, Deputy Prosecutor General V. Harutyunyan submitted an appeal in this case, requesting a review and annulment of the Ashtarak regional court’s ruling dated December 19, 1994, and for the case to be sent back to the first instance court for a new hearing, which was subsequently accepted by the RA Court of Appeals on March 5, 2020,” Abrahamyan added.