Gyumri massacre suspect confesses to murdering Avetisyan family

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian serviceman Valery Permyakov has admitted the murder charges brought against him by the Investigative Committee (IC) of Armenia, the IC said in a statement on Wednesday, Jan 21, Armenia Now reports.

Armenian investigators have charged the 19-year-old Russian citizen who served at the 102nd military base in Gyumri under Article 104 (point 1 of part 2) of the country’s Criminal Code (murder of two or more persons).

Permyakov is accused of shooting and stabbing to death a seven-member Armenian family in Gyumri in a January 12 rampage. The reasons for the attack still remain unclear. The Russian soldier who was reportedly transferred to the base in Gyumri in December is believed to have deserted his military unit with an automatic rifle hours before committing the killings.

Permyakov was apprehended by Russian border guards on January 13 while attempting to cross the border in Turkey and is currently kept in Russian custody at the base.

Last week thousands of angry residents in Gyumri demanded that the accused be handed over to Armenian authorities to be prosecuted and tried in Armenia and by Armenian laws.

Armenian Prosecutor-General Gevorg Kostanyan, however, effectively acknowledged that Russian authorities have the main jurisdiction of the case. On January 15, the day that saw the funeral of six members of the murdered Avetisyan family in Gyumri, Kostanyan promised to protesting citizens, however, that he would submit a formal request to the Russian prosecutor-general on the matter of transferring Permyakov to Armenian custody.

Earlier this week, as head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin was paying a visit to Armenia, the Russian and Armenian law-enforcement bodies agreed to coordinate their separate investigations into the family murder case.

In its the IC stressed that preliminary investigation in the case is being conducted in full measure by the Armenian side and on the basis of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Armenia.