The RA Prosecutor's Office continues to investigate all cases of torture and ill-treatment of people in police divisions, detention places, penitentiary institutions, with a view to make the cases subject of a full, objective and comprehensive investigation, and give legal assessment to them.
On June 7, 2020 from the place of detention of Yerevan City Department was recived information that numerous injuries were found on different parts of K. M.'s body.
With regard to that in the course of the preparation of materials, it was found out that on 06.06.2020 at around 23:40, K. M. had an argument with his neighbor, after which he insulted the officers of the Criminal Investigation Unit of Erebuni Division of Yerevan City Department of the RA Police, punched two police officers causing physical pain.
On 07.06.2020 under Part 1 of Article 316 of the RA Criminal Code was initaited a criminal case.
On the same day, K. M. was detained and transferred to the place of detention of Yerevan City Department of the RA Police. The latter gave explanation that he received bodily injuries while cutting dried tree branches, adding that no one resorted to violence against him. He refused to undergo the appointed forensic examination.
By the materials prepared regarding the case on 17.06.2020 a decision was made to reject the initiation of a criminal case on the basis of the absence of corpus delicti.
On 10.08.2020 the RA Prosecutor General’s Office received the online letter of K. M., by which he informed that his bodily injuries were the result of violence of the police officers, and regarding that he didn’t tell before because the investigator promised to suspend the proceedings.
As a result of verifying the legality of the decision to reject the initiation of a criminal case after getting acquainted with the prepared materials at the RA Prosecutor General's Office, it was found out that the mentioned decision was not grounded.
In particular, in the light of several precedent decisions made by the ECHR against the RA by the European standards for an effective investigation of torture and ill-treatment were not guaranteed the independence and impartiality of the investigation, as the investigation of the case was carried out by the investigator of the same division of the RA Police, and the officers' actions of the mentioned division were related to the alleged ill-treatment.
In addition to that, the number and the nature of bodily injuries of K. M. gave rise to reasonable doubts. Meanwhile, no measures were taken in the course of the preparation of the materials with a view to find out the circumstance of occurrence of that injuries under the conditions described by K. M., in particular, for appointing a forensic medical examination on the basis of the available medical documents.
Proceeding from the above-mentioned and necessity to find out the real circumstances of the case only through a full and objective examination and taking into account that materials on rejection of the initiation of the criminal case contain data on torture of K. M. by a group of people exercising state service, the RA Prosecutor General A. Davtyan by his decision eliminated the decision to reject the initiation of the criminal case and under Point 4 of Part 2 of Article 309.1 of the RA Criminal Code and initiated a criminal case.
Notice: Every person suspected in or charged with a criminal offense shall be presumed innocent unless proved guilty in the manner prescribed by the RA Criminal Procedure Code and unless the verdict comes into legal force.
