Man Arrested for Injecting Drugs and Killing Fellow Citizen

The Investigative Committee of Armenia's Yerevan city has revealed details surrounding the murder of a 46-year-old resident of Gyumri, who intentionally injected a fellow citizen with drugs, leading to his death. This was established through extensive investigative and procedural actions conducted by the department for serious crimes.

According to the investigation, in March 2018, while serving his sentence at the “Nubarashen” correctional facility, the 46-year-old man communicated to his cellmate his intent to take revenge on a victim born in 1983, who was involved in an ongoing criminal case regarding kidnapping. He received the cellmate's consent to assist in the murder for a financial reward by injecting a large dose of methamphetamine to cause a drug overdose.

The accomplice, under significant financial pressure due to debts incurred during his imprisonment, contacted his wife, urging her to carry out the plan, which she agreed to. Acting as a prostitute, she left Yerevan on the evening of March 7, 2018, under the guise of providing services at a gas station in Shirak Province. An employee of the gas station, who had previously expressed readiness to assist in the murder, introduced her to the victim and facilitated their meeting. During this encounter, the woman injected a large dose of illegally obtained methamphetamine into both arms of the man born in 1983.

On March 8, around 5:00 AM, under the initiative of the gas station employee, the incapacitated man was transported in a “VAZ 21054” vehicle and left in a vulnerable state at the intersection of the roads leading to the villages of Azatan and Arevik in Shirak Province.

On the same day, at 8:00 AM, he was discovered and died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital due to acute poisoning from foreign substances.

Additionally, on March 2, 2019, the 46-year-old man was detained by the Erubuni division of the Armenian police on suspicion of orchestrating the murder. During a personal search, his Armenian passport was confiscated. Taking advantage of his right to free movement, he illegally crossed the Armenian state border towards foreign countries without proper documentation and established temporary residence in the Islamic Republic of Iran by September 5.

Subsequently, on January 22, 2020, around 11:21 PM, he overcame an engineering technical fortification of the border guard unit located in Meghri, Syunik Province, cutting through a wire fence, and crossed the protected state border from the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Republic of Armenia, triggering the border alarm system. He was apprehended by border patrol service members.

With sufficient evidence obtained, the 46-year-old man has been charged under Article 38-104 (assisting in murder) of the Armenian Criminal Code, Article 38-266 (illegal trafficking or preparation of drugs and psychotropic substances) and Article 329 (illegal crossing of the state border). He has been remanded in custody as a precautionary measure. The preliminary investigation has concluded, and the criminal case has been forwarded to the court with an accusatory conclusion.