Yesterday in an unprecedented public apology, the chief of Armenia’s police service Alik Sargsyan admitted misleading the nation about the recent scandalous death of a young man in police custody. Sargsyan said he was “deceived” by his subordinates into thinking that Vahan Khalafyan was not ill-treated at the police station of Charentsavan, a small town in central Armenia. The press secretary of the RA police Sayat Shirinyan gave details on the statement of Alik Sargsyan, according to which the police officers of Kotayk marz reported that a suicide was committed in the police department of Charentsavan. “I am going to punish all of my employees who gave me incorrect information and thereby put me in an awkward situation. I am saying beforehand that I am not going to defend anyone and that all the guilty will be punished I never encouraged beatings, there are more proper ways of doing the job. Let those people whom I misinformed with my statements forgive me,” said Sargsyan. “As for those who deceived me, they will be punished with all the strictness of the law. I am not going to forgive anyone,” he added. Still, Sargsyan at the same time stuck to police claims that Khalafyan grabbed a knife from a police officer’s drawer and stabbed himself to death after the interrogation. “I continue to insist that it was a suicide,” he said. The dead man’s relatives insist that the 24-year-old was tortured to death. In general, in a normal country this statement of the chief of police would be followed by his resignation letter because he had confessed that not only the police was wrong but he had received misinformation, which had misled the society. According to his words certain policemen have lied to him.
