VIDEO: 'How can you give the killer just 15 years, to the one who held him down too?' says father of brutally murdered cadet about verdict

Seven years ago, the parents of brutally murdered cadet Hayk Barseghyan believe the sentence imposed by the court on the defendants is lenient. “At least the murderer, who personally killed my son, according to witnesses it was Gnel Tevosyan, should have been sentenced to 20 years, 25 years, or life imprisonment. How is it possible to give the one who personally killed just 15 years and the one who held him down as well?” noted Arkadi Barseghyan, Haykaz Barseghyan’s father, in an interview with journalists after the verdict was announced, stressing that he disagrees with the ruling and intends to appeal.

As previously reported, the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge Davit Harutyunyan, has announced the verdict in the case of the cadet's murder, according to which Gnel Tevosyan, Norik Sahakyan, Vache Sahakyan, and Movses Azaryan, charged with Barseghyan's murder, were sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Arkadi Barseghyan mentioned in an interview that after the incident, everyone claimed that a severe punishment would be imposed and that a fair trial would take place, yet he had not expected this outcome. “They always told me that Mr. Harutyunyan is the judge who would deliver a fair verdict, but at this moment, this was an unjust verdict. I want to know what kind of crime in Armenia must be committed—brutal—for it to warrant life or 20, 25 years imprisonment. It turns out that verdicts rendered in the past were more just than in these times of the current government. I personally met with Nikol Pashinyan and discussed it; I even said to enact a law that would classify the entire family as a traitor in such cases, he said that if we give life sentences, then they are traitors as well. So where is that life sentence?” emphasized Barseghyan, adding that he did not expect this and that he was reassured over the past seven years that everything would be alright, but it turned out this way.