KILLED FOR LAUGHING: SOLDIER’S DEATH REVEALS CONTINUING DANGERS FOR ARMENIAN CONSCRIPTS
- Gegham Sergoyan, 21, took an oath to the Republic of Armenia Army to serve his country. While serving that oath, he was shot dead by an officer for laughing. On April 15 Sergoyan was watching TV at his base in Stepanakert when Lieutenant Henrikh Grigoryan, platoon commander, entered the room and, having suspected Sergoyan of laughing at him, shot the soldier in the head at a range of 15 centimeters.
“They have literally executed my son. Why? Was he an enemy?!” asks Robert Mirzoyan, Sergoyan’s father, waiting still seven months for someone to explain.
A preliminary investigation by military prosecutor’s office of Askeran province say the accused Henrikh Grigoryan, having received a Makarov revolver from the military unit, had gone for a check up.
Returning to the duty unit Grigoryan saw Sergoyan with another soldier watching TV and laughing. He had entered the room and had asked Sergoyan the reason he was in slippers instead of the shoes more fitting to his uniform. Sergoyan had told in response he had permission as the nail on his big toe had been removed several days ago, but Grigoryan had begun to shout asking why they were laughing.
The soldiers had answered they were watching an entertainment program on TV. The lieutenant had said: ‘No, you are laughing at me!’ and drawing Sergoyan to the wall, shot him under his left ear.
Doctors at the local hospital were unable to extract the bullet and called for a car to take Sergoyan to Yerevan.
“The doctors said: ‘Your son is dead for 99 percent; we have to fight for the 1 percent.’ The operation began at 2 a.m. and was over at 8, but it did not save him,” says the still-grieving father.
A criminal case was instigated that could lead to up to 17 years imprisonment if Grigoryan is found guilty.
After the death of their son, the Mirzoyans live with a hope for justice that has diminished these months later.
“Everything is done now to extenuate the murderer’s guilt. They lead the investigation in a way as to present him mentally ill, or to have him committed the murder because of being insulted. They can’t get money from the dead, but they can get it from the murderer. That’s the unwritten law of this trial and they will do everything to have him spend as little time in prison as possible. Besides, he is from Karabakh and the trial will be held in Karabakh,” Mirzoyan says anxiously.
He also questions the quality of the examination of the site, because the examination was recorded by making sketches instead of photographing.
“Wasn’t there a single camera in all of Stepanakert to have it also photographed?,” Mirozyan asks, angry that commanders of the unit have held their posts.
“What are they thinking about?! Don’t they check the lieutenants they take for service and pay them 150,000 ($450) of the state money?! I spent only three days to find out that the murderer used to walk around twisting the revolver around his finger. Weren’t the commanders and generals aware of it?! Why aren’t they brought for responsibility as well?!”
Anxiety and tears suffocate the father who lost his son, who does not even have money to hire a lawyer, while the accused murderer’s defender is Ruben Rshtuni, one of the best and the most expensive lawyers of Armenia.
“I don’t believe the outcome will be just. If Ruben Sargsyan, the supervising military prosecutor, responds to my question how could my son be killed for just laughing, without hiding his smile: ‘Well, he has laughed in a way that he [the murderer] has been unable to stand back and has shot him dead. What are you amazed at?’ What else can I expect?” Mirzoyan asks hopelessly, but demands the trial is at least moved to Armenia.
Mirzoyan has appealed through the office of the Ombudsman to have the case moved out of Stepanakert.
“Mirzoyan and his family members do not have means to get to Karabakh and stay there every time and no one knows how long the trial will take. Their condition is so bad that they can’t even hire a lawyer,” says the chairman of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia Avetik Ishkhanyan.
The law demands that the trial is held where the crime has been committed, but the father of the victim wants to see the law that provides his son had to be taken to Karabakh.
“What’s the law? There is no such law. My child gave oath to protect the Republic of Armenia, not Karabakh. Do you know how many officials have I asked to show me the law allowing taking my child to Karabakh? No one has been able to, because there is no such law,” says Mirzoyan.
Gegham Sergoyan’s case is tragically typical. According to Ishkhanyan 153 conscripts died in 2005 alone (the last year of records). Official data says the number was 89.
“The most terrible thing is that the majority of the murderers are free,” says Artur Sakunts, coordinator of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office. “Mainly innocent young people are being punished because there is no supervision, and because commanders are promoted instead of being sacked.”
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