The chief of the police Alik Sargsyan promised revelation of two scandalous cases. However, these revelations will not include the murder of the deputy chief of the police Gevorg Mheryan. Alik Sargsyan said it is necessary to wait, and the revelation of that case is a matter of honor. However, while Sargsyan would reveal those cases he yesterday spoke about a number of noteworthy cases. For example, he spoke about the scarce number of thieves in law residing in Armenia. In this regard he said, “I think that the 3-4 thieves of law, who abide in our city, don’t change the “climate” at all and they are literally in the middle of our attention. They are totally controlled.” He also mentioned that the Armenian police have already arrested several thieves in law due to various crimes committed by them and claimed that any thief in law would be arrested if he committed a crime. “Or they should understand that in Armenia it is not expedient for them to live in that way because neither the people, nor the government and nor anybody accepts them. I think the phenomenon of the thief in law is already a finished deal and there is even no need to advert to that,” stated the chief of police. As of the question about the so-called criminal authorities then Sargsyan’s response in this regard was shocking. He stated that these authorities are their “clients,” who walk through their doors in a horrible status. “They don’t have any life in this country and will never have,” said Sargsyan. Yesterday Alik Sargsyan with a special encouragement told the journalists about the details of his dialog with a famous statesman. The latter had applied to him with a special request. Indeed Sargsyan didn’t mention the name of this statesman but mentioned that he has a higher education and in quite aware of the jurisdiction. According to Sargsyan this statesman has asked him to beat somebody in order to receive the debt, which that person had borrowed from the statesman. “He said that if the person, who owed him money, was brought to the police station and beaten he would obey and pay back the debt. I tell him that this is illegal and ask him to write a request letter to file a criminal case against the borrower. That way we’d be able to redress his grievances and process the case. He said that he wouldn’t write a letter so that there is no noise and people don’t get information about that. But he says that if you bring him over and beat overnight he will return his money. I want everybody to know that the police are not a beating body. We have changed the manner of work conduct. We don’t have the police of the past. I don’t want to remind you the manners of the policemen in the past as I have been in there myself. As I have once mentioned I have been born and raised in the police structures and am perfectly aware of the police behavior in every year. Currently we exclude such a behavior. Today even the criminal world doesn’t have the right to be displeased with us. I feel their mood and see that only the right person is being punished and in a fair way. Nobody is brought to the police without grounds,” mentioned Sargsyan at the press conference by trying to convince how kind the police had become, in relation to which the attitude of the society is quite negative. Sargsyan also said that the high-profile attack on prominent television journalist Nver Mnatsakanyan was a case of mistaken identity and was in no way connected with the latter’s professional activities. He said that this case can be officially revealed. “Two young people, one of them a university student, confessed that they had beaten Mnatsakanyan,” said Sargsyan. According to him the young people have thoroughly narrated their crime and described the scene of the crime. “I personally had doubts that his beating was connected with his professional activity but a senseless story was revealed, which showed that this person doesn’t have any connection with this. They connected it with a story of some girl’s father and that they had mistaken Mnatsakanyan for someone else.” By the way Sargsyan said that they had also investigated the version, according to which Mnatsakanyan was beaten by the order of a businessman Hrant Vardanyan and his sons but no evidence was found. According to him there was no connection with the Vardanyans and Mnatsakanyan. At the press conference, Armenia’s police chief also reported a rise in the crime detection rate in the republic in the first six months of 2009. Sargsyan said 84.7% percent of all types of crimes were detected in the period in question – a nearly 10 percent rise over the crime detection rate reported for the same period last year. The group of Georgians who were arrested a few weeks ago after bank robbery in Yerevan had robbed 14 apartments in Yerevan. The reporters asked the chief of the police Alik Sargsyan whether it is true that the apartments belong to the head of the service of special investigations Andranik Mirzoyan, Detective Hector Sardaryan, Mayor Gagik Beglaryan’s brother, and other famous people. Alik Sargsyan refused to reveal the names of the owners of apartments. He said they are now searching the Armenian accomplices of the Georgian robbers.
