Police won’t face charges over Ulubabyan incident: official

PanARMENIAN.Net - Head of Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Artur Poghosyan, told parliament there are no grounds for criminal prosecution of police officers in connection with the alleged mistreatment of Tigran Ulubabyan, a young man from Nagorno-Karabakh, at a police station.

Responding to a question from Garnik Danielyan of the Armenia faction, Poghosyan said that urgent procedural actions had been taken, the identities of the officers were confirmed, and partial confrontations were conducted. While the testimonies conflicted, medical and forensic examinations found no recorded injuries on Ulubabyan. As a result, the legal threshold to initiate prosecution has not been met, he said.

Additional forensic tests are pending, Poghosyan noted. Despite public attention to the case, he maintained that the criteria for prosecuting the police have not been satisfied.

Danielyan responded critically, questioning the absence of video recordings and data storage devices. “So you just adopt a theory and take the officers’ word as conclusive,” he argued.

Earlier, Minister of Internal Affairs Arpine Sargsyan addressed the same case in parliament, saying that medical and forensic findings did not support claims of a severe beating. She added that if eight people had assaulted Ulubabyan, it would have resulted in more extensive medical evidence.