On the morning of September 6, at 9:15 a.m. an anonymous person or a group of anonymous people blew up the GAZ 3102 brand name 005 LL 03 state licensed service car belonging to Hovasapyan. Shahen Hovasapyan died, while his driver Andranik Charchyan received physical injuries. What’s interesting is that based on the information from the police station, the driver suffered major injuries. The prosecutor’s office said that the driver didn’t suffer much and had already been persecuted. Hovasapyan’s son Grigor Hovasapyan was also in the car during the explosion, but fortunately, nothing happened to him.
The explosion took place near the Yerevan State Conservatory: The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia said that there was a bomb attached to the right seat next to the driver. As Shahen Hovasapyan sat in the car, the countdown began. This means that the perpetrator was near the scene of the crime and followed up to see when Hovasapyan would enter his car. The explosion was so big that the windows of some buildings nearby broke, especially the windows of first floors and basements. Hovasapyan’s car had not been totally damaged. The interior of the car was in a worse condition; there was blood everywhere. There was even an opening in the right corner of the car, that’s probably where the bomb must have been installed.
The chief prosecution of Armenia has brought up a case against this based on the criminal code. An investigative group has been formed consisting of members from the prosecution, national security officials and police officers. Legal proceedings are underway. Police aren’t coming up with their versions of the possible reasons for the crime yet. The public prosecutors only mentioned that the investigative group is considering all variants. It’s worth mentioning that the murder of Hovasapyan was rather professional.
Shahen Hovasapyan was from Shahumyan. He actively took part in the Karabakh war. At the time, he was leader of the Shahumyan-Getashen patriotic union and president of the Wrestling Federation of Armenia. Hovasapyan has worked for the state income department, where he has headed the big taxpayers subdivision and for the past four months, he was working as head of the operative/investigative group at the state taxation body. “Gosh-Gas” belonged to Hovasapyan. In fact, Shahen Hovasapyan was an ARF member, but he was no longer a member after being appointed to his ranking. According to mass media, there was a murder attempt on Hovasapyan about two months ago. Some people had tried to blow his car up, but there was nothing printed in the press and even the prosecution didn’t give out any information regarding this.
It is worth mentioning that this is the 5th scandalous murder in the past three months. None of the cases has been revealed. However, president Robert Kocharyan has assigned police officers to reveal the case as soon as possible.
“Robert Kocharyan expresses his condolences to the family of Shahen Hovasapyan. The crimes aimed against the state’s regulation of the taxation body and the creation of equality is condemnable and can’t change the policy of the state,” as stated in the president’s message stated by presidential press secretary Victor Soghomonyan.
The “New Times” political party came up with an announcement and demanded that police officials give up their jobs. According to “New Times”, the recent murders prove that the Armenian state is in a state of chaos and the ones responsible are the “current authorities with their clans and criminality.”
“Today, more than ever, it’s important to free ourselves from the criminal authorities. With that in mind, the “New Times” party calls on people to unite and start the fight against criminality and make sure that no criminals play roles in society,” as stated in the announcement. ARF faction leader Hrair Karapetyan had this to say about his fellow ARF member’s murder:
“The recent murders of state officials go to show you that the murders are first and foremost aimed towards the state and the people and they create an environment of fear and depression.”