Earlier it was reported that the Prosecutor’s Office in Yerevan studied the criminal case of murder of Pogos Poghosyan in the cafe “Aragast” on the night of September 24-25, 2001, reviewed in the Court of the First Instance of General Jurisdiction, the statement of the representatives of Stephen John Newton and the documents attached to it.
As a result, it was found out that within the framework of the criminal case initiated on September 25, 2001 on the grounds of a crime under Art. 100 of the RA previous Criminal Code Agamal Harutyunyan, an employee of the Ministry of the RA NS, was pleaded guilty for committing murder envisaged by Article 103 of the RA previous Criminal Code.
The court found out that on September 25, 2001, at around 00:30 AM, in the toilet of “Aragast” cafe, the latter and alcohol-intoxicated P. Poghosyan brawled, and as a result P. Poghosyan fell down onto his back, hit the back of the head on the tile of the toilet floor, as a result of which he died from a severe head injury. By the verdict of the court of February 21, 2002 the defendant - Agamal Harutyunyan was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment, while the imposed sentence was not conditionally applied and a probationary period of 1 year was set.
In the course of the study of the statement of the representatives of Stephen John Newton addressed to the RA Prosecutor General and the statement of Newton attached to it concerning the aforementioned case, it was found out that the statement contained such essential data which obviously indicated the death of P. Poghosyan was not committed by negligence.
Thus, such new circumstances were revealed that could prove that the convicted person allegedly committed a more serious crime - murder with aggravating circumstances. In addition to that, they testify the involvement of other people in the commission of the crime.
On the basis of the above-mentioned, with a view to review the judicial act issued by the criminal case on the fact of murder of P. Poghosyan in the result of newly discovered circumstances, the corresponding proceedings were initiated in the Prosecutor's Office of Yerevan and sent to the Division of Investigation of Grave Crimes of the Investigative Department of Yerevan City of the RA IC.
In the course of the proceedings, a number of measures were taken, witnesses were interrogated, who confirmed the fact that P. Poghosyan was beaten by a group of people. John Stephen Newton was also interrogated, who gave similar testimony.
A forensic medical commission expertise was appointed, and the results of the expertise were different from the data of the earlier conclusion of the criminal case.
The mentioned circumstance with the combination of other factual data obtained within the framework of criminal case, including testimony regarding inflicting blows on different parts of P. Poghosyan’s body by a group of people who were interrogated by the case, confirm that a group of people inflicted blows on different parts of Poghosyan’s body causing a closed, blunt severe head injury.
That is, as a result of the initiated proceedings, new circumstances were obtained, which by themselves, and with previously identified circumstances, prove that a group of people committed a much more serious crime - murder with aggravating circumstances than the crime for which the person was convicted.
On the basis of the above-mentioned, the RA Deputy Prosecutor General launched an appeal in the RA Court of Appeal with a demand to review and completely reject the verdict of February 21, 2002 due to newly discovered circumstances and forward the case to the corresponding lower court for a new consideration.
