The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered the Armenian government to pay €50,000 in damages to the mother of Tigran Ohanjanyan, who died in 2007 while serving in the Armenian Army.

The Armenian government argued that Ohanjayan was accidentally electrocuted, a claim dismissed by his mother Gohar Sargsyan. She has argued that her son was murdered.

The ECHR, in its decision, found that the investigation carried out by Armenian authorities was seriously deficient and that it cannot consider the conclusions of that investigation to be reliable or the explanation for Ohanjanyan’s death to be convincing and satisfactory.

The ECHR writes that while Ohanjanyan’s body was found dead with several injuries, including missing teeth, burn marks on his feet and injuries on the head, ear and jaw and under his eye, these facts were unrecorded in the official autopsy report and other documents.

“It follows that the authorities cannot be regarded as having discharged their obligation to provide a plausible explanation for the death of the applicant’s son, which occurred while he was in their care,” reads the ECHR’s decision.  

The true cause of Ohanjanyan’s death remains unknown.