Former governor should be taken into custody – Armenian opposition M

Former governor should be taken into custody – Armenian opposition MP

June 07, 2013 | 13:26

YEREVAN. – A criminal case should be brought likewise against former
Governor Suren Khachatryan of Armenia’s Syunik Region.

Opposition Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan stated the aforesaid
during a press conference on Friday. She recalled that Khachatryan had
said if he had not been asleep during the incident, he would have
fired twenty bullets to their forehead, and he also had threatened to
break the head of Heritage’s chairman, ex-presidential candidate,
former FM Raffi Hovannisian.

`Given this man’s past, that he has committed violent crimes and made
calls for violence, [and] also the ammunition that was found in his
house, I believe charges should have been laid against him,’ the MP
said.

In Postanjyan’s words, not being an accused and being free,
Khachatryan impedes the investigation.

`He is so dangerous that may also carry out other dangerous acts. The
sooner that man is taken into custody the people will be freed that
much more from harassment of dangerous people,’ Zaruhi Postanjyan
noted. She added that this may become a preventive measure against
similar such officials.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, shots were fired nearby
Syunik Regional Governor Suren Khachatryan’s home in Goris city, on
June 2 at around 12:10am, as a result of which one person was killed
and two others sustained gunshot wounds and were taken to Goris
hospital. The person who died was Avo Budaghyan, the former Goris
mayoral candidate. The wounded are Budaghyan’s brother Artak, and
Nikolay Abrahamyan, a relative and bodyguard of Khachatryan.
Subsequently, the wounded were transferred to capital city Yerevan.

A criminal case is launched on charges of murder and illegal carrying,
possession, and use of arms and ammunition, and the Military
Prosecutor’s Office is conducting the investigation.

Two people are arrested in connection with this incident. One of them
is the Syunik regional governor’s son, Tigran Khachatryan, 19, and the
other is the governor’s bodyguard, Zarzand Nikoghosyan.

Pursuant to his petition, Suren Khachatryan on Thursday was relieved
of his duties as Governor of Syunik Region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress