Video: A Taxi Driver was Targeted by Foreigners; Attacked with a Machete and Robbed

On September 15 at 22:35, an unknown citizen reported to the police operational management center that his friend, who is a taxi driver, had provided a service but was not paid by a customer. The Ministry of Internal Affairs informs that the report was transferred to the Malatya police department, from which an operational group was dispatched.

It turned out that what happened to the caller's friend, a 23-year-old foreign national, was much more serious than reported. "After talking to the injured foreign national and his friend, we understood that he had been the victim of a robbery. The specific location of the incident was one of the houses on Jivanu Street. We rushed to Jivanu Street, but the injured party indicated that there were no people left in the house. All four men who were renting the place had fled," said Harutyun Petrosyan, an operative at the Malatya department’s criminal investigation unit.

As a result of further operational investigative measures, the incident was clarified. According to preliminary information, the young man providing taxi services with a Nissan car had received a call via the WhatsApp application from two of his countrymen, ordering him to come to a house on Jivanu Street. When he arrived, they invited him in for tea. The unsuspecting taxi driver entered the house, where he was struck on the back with the blunt side of a machete and fell.

When he got up, he noticed four individuals with their faces covered. They began to hit the taxi driver, during which one restrained his hands while the others searched his pockets, retrieving 150,000 drams, his passport, international driving license, vehicle technical passport, and two mobile phones. Furthermore, they demanded that he call his family back home to send $10,000, threatening to harm him otherwise. Then, they struck him again, dragging him to the living room, reiterating their demand for him to call his relatives. However, at an opportune moment, noticing that the living room window was open, the taxi driver managed to escape.

A criminal case on robbery features has been initiated in the investigative department of the Malatia-Sebastia administrative district and law enforcement has taken over the case. "Through measures taken in coordination with the investigative department, we managed to identify the individuals who committed the robbery. By collaborating with officials from the Main Division of Criminal Police, the Yerevan Division, and the Gegharkunik regional police department's Vardenis unit, we soon established their hiding place. On September 18, at 11 AM, we discovered four foreign nationals suspected of committing robbery in the village of Vanavan in Gegharkunik region, arrested them, and presented them to the Malatia investigative department," noted Harutyun Petrosyan. All individuals are currently detained. The stolen mobile phones have been recovered, and circumstances are being clarified during the preliminary investigation.