Prosecutor's Office Allows Defendant in March 1 Case to Leave Armenia

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that the Investigative Committee has allowed Gegham Petrosyan, a defendant in the March 1 case, to leave Armenia. This decision was made by the Committee due to a lack of alternatives, as Petrosyan was released from the KGB basement two years ago, and the criminal case has seemingly reached a dead end. This means that the law enforcement authorities detained Petrosyan only to demonstrate that they have uncovered one of the murders from March 1.

It is noteworthy that Petrosyan is accused of the murder of Zakhar Hovhannisyan using firearms on March 1, 2008. He has been charged under part 1 of Article 104 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, which pertains to murder. He was detained by the preliminary investigation body after subordinate police officer Alexander Azaryan testified that he saw Petrosyan shoot at Hovhannisyan.

In an interview with "Zhoghovurd" on July 10, 2019, Petrosyan's lawyer Vahram Gevorgyan stated that experimental shots were fired from a Makarov-type pistol, and the ejected bullet and cartridge were compared to forensic conclusions made in 2008 and 2018. According to the findings of these expert evaluations, the bullets obtained from shots fired from the pistol do not match the bullet found in the body of Zakhar Hovhannisyan.

This means that it has not been proven that Gegham Petrosyan killed Hovhannisyan. After spending about three months in prison, he was released from "Yerevan Central" penitentiary on August 4, 2019. Against the backdrop of this failure, it is planned to raise the salaries of the prosecutor and his deputies by 120%. More details can be found in today’s issue of the newspaper.