(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 March 2003, RSF criticised what it considers to be the Armenian authorities’ “double standard” in making new arrests in the murder of pro-government journalist Tigran Naghdalian, head of the state-owned television station, while suspending an inquiry into a bomb attack on independent investigative reporter Mark Grigorian. “The strenuous efforts to solve […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 17 March 2003, RSF criticised what it considers to be the Armenian authorities’ “double standard” in making new arrests in the murder of pro-government journalist Tigran Naghdalian, head of the state-owned television station, while suspending an inquiry into a bomb attack on independent investigative reporter Mark Grigorian.
“The strenuous efforts to solve the murder of Naghdalian, a leading supporter of President Robert Kocharian, display a political determination not shown in the Grigorian case,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to the country’s prosecutor-general, Aram Tahmazian.
“We are astonished that five months after the incident, no progress has been made in finding those who nearly killed Grigorian or elucidating the reasons for the attack against him. This suggests there is a lack of political interest in the case. We ask you to reopen the inquiry and to be as energetic as you have been over the Naghdalian murder,” Ménard added.
Television chief Naghdalian, aged 36, who also hosted a political commentary programme called “Orakarg”, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman in front of his parents’ home in the capital, Yerevan, on 28 December 2002. He died in hospital an hour and a half later. President Kocharian called an emergency meeting with top security officials the same day to investigate the killing. Naghdalian had been a key figure at the station since 1998.
Police arrested a fourth suspect in the case on 15 March. The suspect, Armen Sarkisian, is a businessman and the brother of former prime minister Aram Sarkisian, who ran against Kocharian in February’s presidential election. A cousin of the ex-premier, Ovanes Arutyunian, was arrested on 14 March and accused of organising the murder. Two other men were arrested on 11 March. Levon Arutyunian (no relation to Ovanes Arutyunian) is said to have helped organise the murder, and Gegam Shakhbazarian allegedly headed the gang that carried it out.
On 10 March, just as the election results were being disputed, the Prosecutor-General’s Office announced that the Naghdalian murder had been solved. Ex-premier Sarkisian then accused the authorities of trying to implicate him in the killing.
Grigorian is RSF’s correspondent in Armenia and deputy director of the Caucasus Media Institute. He received a letter from the Prosecutor-General’s Office, dated 24 February, saying the inquiry into the 22 October grenade attack in a street of the capital which left him seriously injured had been suspended because no suspects had been found.
Grigorian attributes the assassination attempt to people opposed to his investigation of a 27 October 1999 commando attack on the national Parliament which left eight people dead, including former prime minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliamentary spokesperson Karen Demirchian and other top political figures. He said the grenade was clearly aimed at him and exploded at his feet, wounding him in the abdomen, legs and lung.
