Last week in the result of another "talk-through", former NA Deputy and executive director of “Masis Tobacco” CJSC, Samvel Sahakyan, was beaten up, was taken to Erebuni hospital with numerous fractures. According to circulating rumors, the incident was connected with the Parliamentary elections, which were held on May 12, 2007. Sahakyan was nominated as a single-mandate candidate in District 16, where he lost to the Prosperous Armenia Party candidate, Tigran Stepanyan. The President of Grand Holding, Hrant Vardanyan, who had spent a lot of money on Sahakyan’s election, according to the same rumors, is trying to receive his money from Stepanyan, with whom he had a preliminary agreement. Sahakyan was beaten up when he raised the issue of receiving the money back. Although Sahakyan denies that the incident has any political motives, they say Hrant Vardanyan promised to give a similar response. Only time will show, whom he’s going to respond to.
On August 14 at about 6:30 p.m., as a result of another "talk-through", former NA Deputy and executive director of “Masis Tobacco” CJSC, Samvel Sahakyan and his son, Manvel Sahakyan, were beaten up near school79 of the Charbakh district.
On that same day, at about 21:30, Samvel Sahakyan was moved to the neurological-surgical department of Erebuni medical center. According to Sahakyan’s doctor, Vahram Hambardzumyan, the patient suffered a closed cranial fracture, bone breakage, nose fracture, and brain and spinal injuries. According to the doctor these fractures are considered as low-level injuries. It’s not yet known how long Sahakyan is going to stay in the custody of doctors, because the former MP’s doctor mentioned that on August 24 Sahakyan must be examined one more time via computers. Only after that will it become clear what kind of care he’s going to receive. The latter, when speaking to us, assured that he feels normal now. He now can speak and walk.
According to Sahakyan, what happened to him had only trivial grounds, nothing political. According to our information the incident was connected with the parliamentary elections, which were held on May 12, 2007. Sahakyan was nominated as a single-mandate candidate in District 16, where he lost to the Prosperous Armenia Party candidate, Tigran Stepanyan. The President of Grand Holding, Hrant Vardanyan, who has spent a lot of money on Sahakyan’s election, according to the same rumors, is trying to receive his money from Tigran Stepanyan, with whom he had a preliminary agreement. Sahakyan was beaten up when he raised the issue of receiving the money back. Although Sahakyan denies that the incident has any political motives, they say Hrant Vardanyan promised to give a similar response. But yesterday, as we already mentioned, Sahakyan denied that version by saying that the incident only had trivial grounds. “Yes, now there are many arguments like this. We were driving cars and turned out to be too close to each other and as a result we were hit. The argument originated from that,” tells Sahakyan. According to him, besides him in his car was one more person, that is, his son. In the other car, besides the driver, there was one more passenger. According to Sahakyan the argument proceeded in a normal fashion, however later two more people joined his opponents. “First it was only two of them, then two more people joined them…” said Sahakyan by showing his injuries on the arm, head and back. He didn’t want to speak much about that and was saying, “Nothing happened, everything is going to be OK. I found out who these guys were. They were plain middle-class mechanics. Nothing political. Those rumors are not true,” said the former MP. Let’s mention that the police have visited and questioned the victim, and it’s not yet known what steps the police are undertaking. “The policemen came to talk to me but I don’t yet know what they’re going to do,” he said.
When asked, Sahakyan’s doctor, Vahram Hambardumayan said that he is not aware what condition Sahakyan was in when moved to the medical center, as he wasn’t on duty that day. “I wasn’t here at that time. The patient was received by the doctor on duty. That’s why I cannot say what condition he was in before I met him. His state is pretty stable. We are going to conduct a double computer topographic examination in three days to make sure that there is no small contusion injury. I met him only the next morning of the incident. At that time he was in a relatively satisfactory state. He was not operated on. He is only receiving medical treatment,” said Hambardzumyan. He also informed that besides the police, judicial experts have also visited Sahakyan. Yesterday the public service department of the police informed us that on August 14, at about 7:55, the Charbakh police department received a call that on that same day, at 6:30 p.m., Samvel and Manvel Sahakyan were beaten by two men with clubs, kicked, and punched near school 79 of Charbakh. They also informed us that the police have initiated a criminal case, however cannot publicize any information at this stage because of the secrecy of the investigation.