Police Officer Faces 8-Year Jail Term in Custody Death Case
Monday, 25 October 2010 04:19 | 
| 
| 
| |
RFE/RL -- Prosecutors in Armenia are seeking an eight-year prison sentence for a police officer standing trial for ill-treating a young man who died in police custody in still unclear circumstances.
Major Ashot Harutiunian, the former chief of criminal investigations at the police department of Charentsavan, a small town about 40 kilometers north of Armenian capital Yerevan, was arrested in late April and charged with beating Vahan Khalafian, one of several suspects in a theft investigation, which allegedly led the latter to commit suicide.
Khalafian, 24, was detained on April 13 along with several other young men and died in police custody later that day in what police, and later investigators, said was suicide, with the man allegedly stabbing himself to death with a knife.
Khalafian, 24, was detained on April 13 along with several other young men and died in police custody later that day in what police, and later investigators, said was suicide, with the man allegedly stabbing himself to death with a knife.
Khalafian’s family and leading human rights groups, however, challenged the official version of the events, claiming that the you
