Former police officer Mkhitar Aloumyan today decided to declare a hunger strike in front of the RA presidential residence after attempting to set himself on fire.

In an interview with Hetq, Aloumyan mentioned that the RA Police had already sent him a notice, informing him that the launch of a criminal case based on his appeal addressed to the RA President had been denied.

That notice states that the General Department of State Security of the RA Police had received and discussed Mkhitar Aloumyan’s appeal filed to the RA President and had conducted an official investigation, but had denied the launch of a criminal case, accepting as a basis the notice that Mkhitar Aloumyan had written while he was at the General Department for State Preservation of the RA Police on September 27, 2011.

According to that notice, Aloumyan had stated that he had “no debts or claims”.Mkhitar Aloumyan was dismissed in October 2011 as a  police officer for the special unit of the Hrazdan hydro-electric station of the General Department for State Security of the RA Police, after he started causing a ruckus about not receiving wages for overtime service and demanded the 4.5 million drams that he was supposed to have receive.

On September 16, Aloumyan filed an appeal to the General Department for State Security with that demand. On September 27, he was called to the General Department for State Security and wrote his second appeal “in an atmosphere of fear and pressure”. According to this appeal, the “no debts and claims” clause in his original petition had been written while in a state of psychological pressure.

In his previous interview with Hetq, Aloumyan didn’t wish to go into details on how he was forced to write the internal document dated September 27, saying “it was a shame, not something to talk about”.

However, knowing that it was the internal document written on September 27 that served as a ground for the investigative service’s denial to instigate the criminal case, Aloumyan said he had been “beaten to write it”.

 “On that day, I had gone to work. It was September 27. I had appealed to the General Department for State Security on the 16th with the demand to receive my wages and was waiting for a reply. I started the morning shift and was on the job when a deputy colonel and a major from the General Department for State Security approached me and said the Chief of the Department wanted to see me. We went to the Department. We started talking calmly. They tried to convince me to do my job and forget about the back wages. I argued, saying that that money was legally mine and that I had to receive it. After that, the only thing I remember is how four or five people attacked me and started hitting me. Only after that beating did I write the internal document stating that I had “no debts and claims”. They accepted that document as a basis and closed the case,” says Mkhitar Aloumyan.

After September 27, according to Aloumyan, he informed the Special Investigative Service several times that he had been forced to write that internal document in an atmosphere of fear and pressure.

 “But today, it turns out that after September 27, none of the documents that I had written have been taken into consideration because those documents are not in their favor. If the investigative service has professional experts, didn’t any of them ask how this person could have written one thing one day and a totally different thing the next day? This means that they were also aware that they had intimidated me and had made me write it,” says Aloumyan.

According to Aloumyan, after submitting the internal document that “they wanted”, Chief of the General Department for State Preservation, Roman Mkrtoumyan, called the Commander of the special unit of the Hrazdan hydro-electric station, Sergey Haroutyunyan and ordered him to transfer 5,000 dollars from the 4.5 million drams, wishing to end the case that way.

 Mkhitar took the money, but also informed the investigative service that he had been given a partial sum, without signing anything and without receiving a receipt. According to Aloumyan, the investigative service is aware that he has taken the 5,000 dollars.

 “Why didn’t they ask me what the grounds for taking that money were? I took that money because I needed it a lot. I had absolutely no money to take my child to the doctor, but I informed them that I had taken the money without being given a receipt. They didn’t utter a word because they wanted to get away with this by giving me the 5,000 dollars. But they won’t get away with it. I should receive the entire sum by law and will fight till the end,” says Mkhitar Aloumyan.

 Aloumyan claims that recently the Arabkir division of the RA Police called, telling him ‘come, we’ll think of something’.

 “Perhaps they want to give me the money for my child’s operation and keep me silent, but I’m not begging for money. I want the money that I am supposed to receive by law. I won’t go. I’m afraid they’ll concoct a case against me,” says Mkhitar.

 Today at 11:30 Aloumyan is preparing to declare a hunger strike with the hope that the RA President will hear his voice of protest and that the media will be aware of how the General Department for State Preservation “forces people into writing internal affidavits”.

(Translated by Raffi Elliott)