CONFUSION SURROUNDS INVESTIGATION OF ARMENIAN YOUTH’S MURDER IN MOSCOW
Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union, DC
May 4 2006
The prime suspect in the murder of an Armenian youth in Moscow last
month has been released after signing a written pledge not to leave the
city until the investigation is completed, according to an April 28,
2006 report by the Newsru.com news web site. Prosecutors were not able
to muster enough evidence to charge 16 year old Denis Kulagin and had
to release him after 72 hours of detention. Mr. Kulagin originally
confessed to the murder of Vigen Abramyants, but later retracted
his confession.
Meanwhile, public mistrust of police-who are regularly accused of
torturing suspects into making false confessions and covering up
anti-minority violence-appears to be damaging the case. In an April
28, 2006 interview with the national daily Moskovsky Komsomolets,
the victim’s father claimed that 11 witnesses saw his son killed by
skinheads, a version of events that investigators have characterized
as a red herring designed to distract attention from Mr. Kulagin,
who they believed killed Mr. Abramyants after a quarrel over a girl.
Rafael Abramyants alleged that police pressured Mr. Kulagin into
confessing, telling him that as a youth, he would get a suspended
sentence. Another witness, identified only by her first name Elmira,
was quoted in the newspaper report saying that Vigen Abramyants was
killed by skinheads; his father then added that a metro security
camera was missing four hours of film which should have recorded the
murder. Police earlier refuted this charge, asserting that the camera
did record the murder, but that the victim was obscured from view by
a large group of passengers.