AKHURYAN POLICE WERE DISGRACED, SAYS INVESTIGATOR IN PRISONER SUICIDE CASE
epress.am
12.14.2011
The Dec. 10 suicide of Gyumri resident Gor Manukyan at Akhuryan Police
Department is unusual in that it took place under the noses of police
officers, under specially controlled conditions, writes local daily
Aravot (“Morning”).
As previously reported, Manukyan used a bed sheet to hang himself. The
twice-convicted 43-year-old had been arrested for theft but had
been released from prison. He committed suicide while in a temporary
holding cell for detainees just prior to his release.
The Aravot reporter asked Armen Mikayelyan, the investigator looking
into the case, what were officers on duty doing at the time, and
whether detainees are permitted to take sheets and blankets with them
into the cell?
“This is a rare case – the first time it’s happened in our experience –
because when admitting people into police custody, belts, shoelaces,
everything that might allow one to kill himself are taken from them.
Detainees are permitted two sheets and one pillow case,” he said.
Of the two officers on duty, Mikaeyelyan said, one had done the
rounds and walked in front of the cells, monitoring prisoner activity,
while the other was at the guards’ office.
The investigator noted that 3 to 4 minutes before the incident, the
officer on duty had seen Gor Manukyan in his cell, even speaking with
them, while a few minutes later, he found him strangled to death with
his sheet.
Manukyan was the only one in his cell, and officers hadn’t noticed
anything unusual with him.
According to police officers, Manukyan spent his whole life in
captivity: he’s been serving time since 2003, twice convicted for
theft. However, fresh out of prison, he stole again: he broke into
his cousin’s car garage and stole his car.
A criminal case specified under RA Criminal Code Article 110 Section 1
(“causing someone to commit suicide”) has been launched.
Speaking to Aravot, Mikayelyan said that with his deed Gor Manukyan
has shamed the officers at Akhuryan division, while, according to the
investigator, supervision in the police division was properly carried
out, the police did their rounds and monitored prisoner activity.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
