The chief of Armenia’s national police service Alik Sargsyan has denied that either of the two police servicemen killed in last year’s post-election melee in Yerevan might have become victims of weapons used by fellow servicemen. At a press conference yesterday Sargsyan also warned the opposition media against making a ‘scapegoat’ out of the police by publishing incriminating stories against separate police officers. Sargsyan said the recent reports published by the pro-opposition members of the disbanded Fact-finding Group of Experts that was tasked with collecting evidence to shed light on Armenia’s worst street violence lacked any evidential grounds to blame the police for any of the ten deaths that happed on March 1-2, 2008. He stressed that so far the police have failed to find any evidence to support the lingering suspicions. “There is no accusing anyone as there is presumption of innocence. You have forgotten about it,” Sargsyan said poignantly, addressing his words at the media. As of the murder of the police officer Hamlet Tadevosyan, in relation to which the opposition Fact-finding Group claims that he was shot dead by another policemen, Sargsyan said, “We don’t have such evidence at all. At this moment there is no information that a policeman was shot by a policeman.” The chief of the national police promised to inform the media soon about a number of revelations connected with two recent high-profile cases and make arrests in these cases. He said, however, that the promised revelations would not concern the murder of Gevorg Mheryan, a deputy chief of the national police, who was shot dead moments after leaving his apartment in Yerevan on February 4. Sargsyan said operative work in that case was still ongoing. “It is necessary to wait, and the revelation of that case is a matter of honor. You will receive information on this,” he said.
