Armenian opposition opposes Russian interference in Gyumri murder case

The "Resolute Citizen" Party is demanding information from the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Armenia on whether the suspect of killing a Gyumri resident is still in the Russian military base. If is so, it means that in Armenia Russian laws are given preference over local ones, the "Sasna Tsrer" Party has stated.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Djulietta Gukasyan, a 57-year-old Gyumri resident, was beaten up on December 3 and died in hospital. A military serviceman of the 102nd Russian base was arrested on suspicion of committing the crime.

After the massacre of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri in 2015, it became obvious that the Armenian-Russian agreement precludes the full application of Armenian justice to the servicemen of the Russian base, the "Sasna Tsrer" Party asserts.

Daniel Ionnisyan, the coordinator of the "Union of Informed Citizens" programme, has supposed that Russia could rely on the law, according to which a citizen of the Russian Federation, who is under the control of Russian law enforcement bodies, cannot be transferred to another state.

The Russian diplomatic mission (Embassy) to Armenia has noted the emotional nature of debates around the Gyumri murder and called on the Facebook not to interfere with the investigators' work.

Earlier, the Embassy criticized the Armenian media for publications about the involvement of a Russian soldier in the crime, and for ignoring the presumption of innocence.