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OLIGOPHRENIC?: RUSSIAN MEDIA CLAIM GYUMRI MASSACRE SUSPECT HAS 'MENTAL RETARDATION'
News | 06.02.15 | 10:55
By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent
The case of the murder of a seven-member family in Gyumri may be
taking a whole new turn as Russian media have published results
of a journalistic investigation claiming that the prime suspect,
serviceman of the Russian military base Valery Permyakov, has a
history of mental illness and was allegedly "oligophrenic", which is
a mental retardation.
In particular, Russian Lifenews TV channel published the results of
interviews with the commander of a unit and doctors, according to
whom before being transferred to Gyumri Permyakov had been treated
in a psychiatric hospital for a month.
Moreover, the unit commander and the commissar are already held
accountable for drafting a sick person and sending him for service
abroad.
In Armenia, this information provoked a strong reaction - many feel
that the Russians simply try to justify the heinous crime allegedly
committed by their serviceman and do not want to hand him over to
Armenian justice.
Thousands of Gyumri residents staged protests near the Russian
consulate and the military base on January 15 demanding that Permyakov
be transferred to Armenian law-enforcement bodies. One of the
participants of the protests, Mnatsakan Alexanyan, was later arrested.
Gyumri-based political analyst Gagik Hambaryan thinks that the
arrest of Alexanyan may cause a new wave of protests in Gyumri,
especially that the demand of the people has not been met despite
the information that Armenian Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan
had sent a corresponding letter to his Russian counterpart.
Russia's refusal to transfer the suspected criminal to Armenia is
interpreted in two ways.
First, it is believed that this way Russia is trying to prove the
supremacy of its Constitution in Armenia, violating the right of
Armenia to sovereign justice.
Secondly, some suspect that the Russian side may be keeping Permyakov
to ensure that he does not tell Armenian investigators a different
version of events. Media have written a lot about the great likelihood
that Permyakov was not alone in committing the crime and that it
could have been an act committed by a group involving either other
Russian servicemen or "agents of third countries". And, according to
this version, Russia is doing everything for these theories never to
be developed.
Now declaring Permyakov to be "oligophrenic", the Russian side may
even allow Armenian investigators to have immediate access to him. Now
Permyakov can tell anything and whatever he says will only be taken as
"delirium of a mentally ill person".
One cannot, of course, exclude that Permyakov may have some mental
problems and that it was him alone who committed the monstrous crime.
But Russia's persistent unwillingness to hand him over to the Armenian
side prompts that there may be another version, which is much more
disadvantageous to Russia than declaring its soldier mentally ill
and admitting that unhealthy people can be sent to the Russian base.
http://armenianow.com/news/60401/armenia_permyakov_russia_gyumri_family_murder
News | 06.02.15 | 10:55
By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent
The case of the murder of a seven-member family in Gyumri may be
taking a whole new turn as Russian media have published results
of a journalistic investigation claiming that the prime suspect,
serviceman of the Russian military base Valery Permyakov, has a
history of mental illness and was allegedly "oligophrenic", which is
a mental retardation.
In particular, Russian Lifenews TV channel published the results of
interviews with the commander of a unit and doctors, according to
whom before being transferred to Gyumri Permyakov had been treated
in a psychiatric hospital for a month.
Moreover, the unit commander and the commissar are already held
accountable for drafting a sick person and sending him for service
abroad.
In Armenia, this information provoked a strong reaction - many feel
that the Russians simply try to justify the heinous crime allegedly
committed by their serviceman and do not want to hand him over to
Armenian justice.
Thousands of Gyumri residents staged protests near the Russian
consulate and the military base on January 15 demanding that Permyakov
be transferred to Armenian law-enforcement bodies. One of the
participants of the protests, Mnatsakan Alexanyan, was later arrested.
Gyumri-based political analyst Gagik Hambaryan thinks that the
arrest of Alexanyan may cause a new wave of protests in Gyumri,
especially that the demand of the people has not been met despite
the information that Armenian Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan
had sent a corresponding letter to his Russian counterpart.
Russia's refusal to transfer the suspected criminal to Armenia is
interpreted in two ways.
First, it is believed that this way Russia is trying to prove the
supremacy of its Constitution in Armenia, violating the right of
Armenia to sovereign justice.
Secondly, some suspect that the Russian side may be keeping Permyakov
to ensure that he does not tell Armenian investigators a different
version of events. Media have written a lot about the great likelihood
that Permyakov was not alone in committing the crime and that it
could have been an act committed by a group involving either other
Russian servicemen or "agents of third countries". And, according to
this version, Russia is doing everything for these theories never to
be developed.
Now declaring Permyakov to be "oligophrenic", the Russian side may
even allow Armenian investigators to have immediate access to him. Now
Permyakov can tell anything and whatever he says will only be taken as
"delirium of a mentally ill person".
One cannot, of course, exclude that Permyakov may have some mental
problems and that it was him alone who committed the monstrous crime.
But Russia's persistent unwillingness to hand him over to the Armenian
side prompts that there may be another version, which is much more
disadvantageous to Russia than declaring its soldier mentally ill
and admitting that unhealthy people can be sent to the Russian base.
http://armenianow.com/news/60401/armenia_permyakov_russia_gyumri_family_murder