RFE/RL -- An Armenian police officer was charged on Thursday with torturing a young man who died at the police station of the central town of Charentsavan earlier this month.

The development announced by the Special Investigative Service (SIS) is a massive blow to the credibility of police claims that Vahan Khalafian was not ill-treated by his interrogators and simply committed suicide in police custody.

In a written statement, the SIS said its investigators have found that Ashot Harutiunian, one of two police officers arrested in the ongoing inquiry, “used force” against Khalafian after the 24-year-old refused to confess to a theft committed in Charentsavan. The law-enforcement agency subordinated to Armenian prosecutors said the conclusion is based on testimony given by several other local police officers who were present at the April 13 interrogation.

According to a spokeswoman for Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General, the policemen reaffirmed it during a face-to-face questioning with Harutiunian. “They insisted on their testimony, saying that force was indeed used,” Sona Truzian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“The head of the criminal investigations unit [at the Charentsavan police] did use violence against Vahan Khalafian,” Truzian said, referring to Harutiunian. She said the latter was charged under a Criminal Code article dealing with abuse of power which is “accompanied by use of violence” and causes “severe consequences.” The charge carries between six and ten years’ imprisonment.

Harutiunian was arrested on Monday on suspicion of prodding Khalafian to commit suicide. A corresponding accusation has been leveled against one of his police subordinates who was placed under arrest last week.

Whether the SIS believes Khalafian died as a result of torture or, as has been claimed by the Armenian police, stabbed himself to death is not yet clear. Truzian said SIS investigators will answer this question after the continuing forensic examinations of Khalafian’s body. The SIS statement said the investigators have still not received their final results.