While most of us were focusing on last week’s parliamentary election, another event occurred that shouldn’t have paled into insignificance in comparison. On Saturday 12 May, 30-year-old Levon Gulyan died under mysterious circumstances in police custody. The authorities claim that Gulyan died while attempting escape from police custody, but human rights activists and his family suspect that he died during interrogation at the hands of police.

While it has long been reported by international human rights organizations that the police here rely on torture and physical abuse to extract confessions from suspects, Gulyan’s death is even more serious given that he was merely a witness to a deadly shooting that occurred outside his restaurant a few days earlier.

RFE/RL reported the news.

“They probably hit him in the head with something and he died,” Ghulian’s uncle, Toros Papazian, told RFE/RL. “They just don’t want to admit that he died in a police office.”

Papazian said his nephew’s body bore traces of violence such as a broken rib and thigh bone and bruises on his heels. “Levon was accidentally tortured to death before being thrown out of the window,” he said.

Ghulian was the owner of a restaurant in Yerevan’s southern Shengavit district near which a man was shot dead on May 9 in a reported dispute between two groups of unknown individuals. He was first detained and questioned at Shengavit’s police department.

“They were forcing Levon to name the murderer,” Papazian said. “He didn’t know that, but they kept beating him.”

Papazian added that Ghulian was for days repeatedly interrogated by the Shengavit police and prosecutors before being taken to the national Police Service’s Directorate General of Criminal Investigations on Saturday. He said the deputy chief of the department, Hovik Tamamian, personally drove him to his office.

News of Gulyan’s death has understandably been the focus of many bloggers here, and Tirami Su has been quite prolific in posting photographs from demonstrations held to demand an independent autopsy and investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic event. She also posts a letter on behalf of Gulyan’s family demanding justice.

Since the tragic event on May 12th, Mr. Gulyan’s family members have put aside emotional grieving and are working hard to reprimand the individuals responsible for Mr. Gulyan’s death. The family has contacted several television stations and newspapers. A few television stations have mentioned the incident, although very minimally, and several newspapers have written articles about the incident. There is another very serious problem, the reporters involved in writing the articles have been receiving anonymous threatening phone calls against their life.

This situation is not the first death in the Ministry of Internal Affairs building and if we don’t stand up for our rights and for Levon Gulyan’s rights, then these kinds of incidences will continue to happen. Many more innocent people will be killed. A wrong has been done, but justice needs to prevail.

Indeed, the facts of the shooting that Gulyan may or may not have been witness to raise some serious questions surrounding the interest of the police in extracting testimony from the father of two. As we know, many business interests are often run by criminals with close ties to the local and national authorities and it’s possible that Gulyan’s testimony was necessary in order to appease one or the other side in the deadly dispute that occurred outside his restaurant.

Armenia Now has more.

Whatever the cause, his death is linked to May 9, when Stepan Vardanyan, was shot dead near a restaurant owned by Gulyan in the Shengavit district of Yerevan.

Vardanyan was the son of Gagik Vardanyan, who owns a sauna near Gulyan’s restaurant. He was killed about 10 p.m. in what might be gang-related violence, as two other killings have taken place between Vardanyan’s and another clan.

According to restaurant staff, shortly before the killing, Gulyan had asked rival clan members to leave the neighborhood, and had told his staff to stay inside. Gulyan witnessed the murder, but told police he could not identify the killer.

A few hours after the killing, police took Gulyan from his home at about 3 a.m. and held him until about 10:30 p.m., demanding that he return the next day (May 11).

While Tirami Su posts more photographs accusing Deputy Head of the Shengavit Police of murder, Nazarian is understandably angry at Gulyan’s death and what many accuse of being a cover-up.

Only the naive doubt that there is police brutality in Armenia. It is an Armenian custom to beat the crap out of people to gain a confession. The cops have a duty to show a certain percentage of solved crimes and they have to reach that percentage or face dismissal. The easiest thing to do is to find a fall guy and torture him until he confesses. The courts then rubber stamp the police investigation and the poor guy is sent to jail - imprisoned but alive.

Uzogh says that no matter how much I use the term ‘banana republic’, it will not make Armenia a banana republic. If this is not what a banana republic means then I don’t know what is.

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) supports these concerns, and its Executive Director has already sent a letter detailing them to the Chief of Armenian Police, Lieutenant-General Hayk Harutiunyan. According to news reports, the Prosecutor-General has launched a criminal case into Gulyan’s death “under an article of the Armenian Criminal Code that deals with cases where individuals are forced to commit suicide.”

Anyway, there was another demonstration to demand justice held by Gulyan’s family and supporters, but as I was told that it would start from Liberty Square instead of Republic Square I missed it. Besides, I was also meeting Joshua Kucera at the same time, and there were others to document the candlelight procession to the Police Headquarters.

Anush at The Armenian Patchwork was one of them and posts an account accompanied by photographs.

The relatives of Levon Gulyan, who died on 12 May, began a march with candles and flowers in Republic Square and walked towards the Police Headquarters. The people were accompanied by police.

When the people reached the Police building, policemen did not allow them to come closer than the sidewalk. The relatives and the rest amounting to about 300 left their candles and flowers on the sidewalk next to the feet of the policemen.

Some people shouted out to the police saying things like “the same may happen to you one day”, but the relatives asked everyone to silently honor the memory.

This case is obviously very serious indeed for anyone concerned by the lack of the rule of law and official accountability in Armenia and it’s no wonder that both Bekaisa and Tirami Su are constantly updating their blogs with new information. As Levon Gulyan’s family have demanded, may justice prevail. However, I would add that if Gulyan did indeed die from a fall while trying to escape, although as an eye witness he should have been quite able to leave on his own accord, the authorities should be as eager to allow an independent inquiry and autopsy as his family.

Anyway, there’s a web site set up — http://www.levon-gulyan.info/.