VIDEO: Why has the murderer Mher Yenokyan transitioned to parole?

Journalists pressed Justice Minister Grigor Minasyan for explanations as to why murderer Mher Yenokyan has transitioned to parole.

“First of all, no decision has been made; the process is ongoing, and the opinion of the victim’s representatives is not decisive regarding the transition to a lighter or stricter regime. If the convict behaves normally during the specified period, they are naturally directed towards a more positive regime,” Minasyan noted.

It is recalled that at the age of 20, in 1996, Mher Yenokyan was sentenced to death for the murder of his classmate, Iosif Aghajanyan (under Article 99, sections 1 and 6 of the RA Criminal Code). Yenokyan and his brother's classmate, Aram Harutyunyan, were charged with the murder.

On July 12, 1996, in Yerevan, Yenokyan and Harutyunyan agreed to lure Iosif Aghajanyan to Harutyunyan’s apartment with the intention of demanding $20,000 from Aghajanyan's parents for revealing the location of his body, after murdering him. In a particularly brutal manner, they killed him there: Yenokyan struck Aghajanyan on the head with a metal tool (a wrench) and then stabbed him in the chest and eye. During this, Harutyunyan held Aghajanyan's legs, and when Aghajanyan fainted, he cut Iosif's throat on Yenokyan's command. After killing Aghajanyan, they placed the body in a canvas bag, took it outside, and hid it behind a concrete wall, covering it with stones.

Yenokyan has never admitted guilt. Aram Harutyunyan initially confessed and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mher Yenokyan was sentenced to death in 1996, but under a presidential pardon in 2003, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.