ARMENIAN COURT SENTENCES MAN KILLING TWO RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS TO LIFE

Interfax
May 31 2012
Russia

A Yerevan court has found Mikhail Bashchkov guilty of killing two
warrant officers from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)
Border Department and sentenced him to life.

Bashchkov, an ethnic Russian and a citizen of Armenia, was earlier
indicted for killing two or more people out of mercenary ends.

Artur Yenokian and Armen Zakharian were killed on the grounds of a
Russian military unit located in a suburb of Yerevan in 2010. Their
bodies with numerous stab wounds were discovered on October 23, 2010.

Documents from the case indicate that Bashchkov had drawn a
6-million-dram loan (about $15,000) from a local bank in November
2009, pledging his apartment as collateral. To repay the interest on
the loan, he later borrowed 20,000 rubles from his friend Zakharian.

After repaying part of this sum, the defendant still owed Zakharian
150,000 drams ($375), the repayment of which was a problem for him,
and so he planned a murder.

Bashchkov sneaked into the military unit’s radio center in the early
hours of October 23, 2010, when Zakharian was on duty there, killed
him and fatally stabbed Yenokian, who had come to Zakharian’s aid.

The court also obliged Bashchkov to pay 5.95 million dram ($14,800)
to the families of the men he killed.

As many as 104 people are currently serving life sentences in Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress