Court of Appeal sent Poghos Poghosyan`s murder case for a new  consideration 

ArmInfo. On July 6, the Criminal  Court of Appeal, chaired by Judge Rubik Mkhitaryan, overturned the  sentence of the person convicted in the case of Poghos Poghosyan -  Aghamal Harutyunyan, and sent the case to the trial court for a new  consideration.

To recall, we are talking about the case of the murder of a citizen  of Georgia Poghos Poghosyan on the night of September 25, 2001. A  tragic incident occurred in the <Aragast> jazz cafe after Poghosyan  to said then-President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan inappropriately:  "Hello, Rob." According to media reports, Poghosyan and Kocharyan  have been familiar since student days. Kocharyan's guards brought  Poghosyan to the toilet and began to beat him.

As already reported, the prosecutor's office of the city of Yerevan  studied the decision of the court of general jurisdiction of the  first instance of 2001, as well as the criminal case of the murder of  Poghos Poghosyan, the statement of the representatives of the British  citizen Stephen John Newton, who was in the cafe that fateful day.

According to a criminal case instituted on the grounds of a crime  under Article 100 of the old Criminal Code of the Republic of  Armenia, an employee of the Ministry of National Security of the  Republic of Armenia, Aghamal Harutyunyan, was found guilty of  committing murder through negligence due to criminal negligence. In  studying the case, the court found confirmed the fact that on  September 25, 2001 at about 00:30 in the toilet of the Yerevan  "Aragast" cafe between Harutyunyan and Poghosyan, who was  intoxicated, there was a brawl, during which Poghosyan fell on his  back and hit his head on the floor, as a result of which he died from  a closed head injury. On February 21, 2002, the court sentenced  Aghamal Harutyunyan to 2 years of imprisonment, however, the assigned  punishment was not even applied conditionally in connection with the  established probationary period of one year.

Meanwhile, according to the results of the study of the statement  addressed to the RA Prosecutor General through representatives of  Stephen John Newton, it was found that the statement contains  substantial information that in fact there was a deliberate murder by  a group of persons from hooligan motives.

Thus, new circumstances appeared that could prove that the convicted  person in the case clearly committed a more serious crime -  aggravated murder.

Based on the foregoing, the corresponding proceedings were instituted  in the prosecutor's office of Yerevan and, with the order to conduct  an investigation, was sent to the department for the investigation of  serious crimes of the RA IC. During the proceedings, a number of  actions were taken, witnesses were questioned, who confirmed the fact  of beating Poghos Poghosyan by several persons. Similar testimony was  given by Stephen John Newton.  A forensic medical examination  commission was appointed, the results of which differ significantly  from the findings of the report issued earlier in the criminal case.  This circumstance, coupled with other factual data acquired in the  criminal case, confirms that a group of people with their hands and  legs struck various parts of Poghos Poghosyan's body, especially on  the head, causing a closed head injury.  Based on the foregoing, at  the beginning of this year, the Deputy Prosecutor General of the RA  submitted a complaint to the RA Court of Appeals on reviewing and  canceling the verdict of February 21, 2002 on the basis of newly  discovered circumstances, as well as senting the case to the court  for a new consideration.