Russian serviceman Valery Permyakov, sentenced to life in prison over the murder of seven members of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri, Armenia, was transferred to Russian on Thursday to serve his sentence at home.

Armenian justice ministry said in a release the transfer was implemented in accordance with the procedure, established by the 1998 Moscow Agreement on the transfer of the sentenced persons for the enforcement of custodial sentences.

According to the source, an arrangement was reached in consultation with law enforcement bodies of Russia, to provide the Armenian side with information about the course of his sentence upon receiving a corresponding request.

Earlier, the ministry received the decision of the Court of the Russian Federation on recognizing the verdict over massacre of Gyumri’s family of Avetisyans issued by General Jurisdiction Court of First Instance of Armenia’s Shirak Province on 23 August 2016 and implementing that verdict in the Russian territory. The statement read that
“The decision of the Russian Court guarantees the full and unconditional implementation of the verdict of the life sentence against the Russian citizen Valery Permyakov as prescribed by the international agreements between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation.”

To remind, on January 12, 2015, Permyakov, a private serving at the Russian military base in Armenia, fled his post carrying arms and cartridges, broke into a house and shot dead a family of six, including a two-year child, and wounded a six-month baby, who died in a hospital a few days later.

He was convicted under the Armenian Criminal Code’s Article 104 part 2 points 1, 5, and 8 (contract murder of two or more people committed with cruelty, for mercenary motives, and combined with extortion, robbery or banditry), Article 175 part 2 points 3 and 4 (robbery committed after a break-in, with the use of weapons or other objects used as a weapon), and Article 34-329 part 1 (an attempt to violate the state border of the Republic of Armenia without the necessary documents or permission).