See also: Official Cover-Up? Abduction and Rape Trial of 17 Year-Old Hits Dead-End 

Village residents found out that their neighbor, Sasha Davtyan, had been charged with the rape of his own daughter, 17 year-old Anahit, when the police came to arrest him. The news shook the village to its core.

In the space of a few hours, 147 residents singed affidavit attesting to the Davtyan’s high moral character. The document was handed over to Ruben Vardanyan, the investigator heading the case. The inspector wasn’t pleased with how village residents rallied round in support of Davtyan, so he started to apply psychological pressure on Khanoum Mkrtchyan, lawyer for the accused, and on the villagers as well. Inspector Vardanyan told the lawyer that she would have to defend the 147 signees as well. He demanded that the positive affidavit be returned and that another, more defamatory one regarding Sasha Davtyan, be handed in. Inspector Vardanyan also stated that if the villagers didn’t revoke the affidavit in writing, he would personally interrogate them one by one. He partially made good on his demand and called in five villagers for interrogation.

 Villagers claim a father has been framed 

In the end, all the efforts of the inspector were for naught. All the witnesses spoke about Davtyan in glowing terms and ruled out any possibility that Sasha Davtyan could rape his own daughter. When we visited Sasha Davtyan’s home village, it took no time at all for residents to find out the nature of our visit. In the space of a few minutes, some fifty villagers had gathered outside the local cultural center. Things got really emotional when a group of old men, most likely 80 or older, slowly climbed the stairs with the help of their canes, to declare their support of Sasha Davtyan and to testify what a good man he was. They demanded that we listen to what they had to say and to relay the following message, via the pages of “Hetq”, to the investigator, prosecutor and the judge – they were ready to resort to extreme measures in order to free Sasha, given that he was innocent of all charges. 

“We will take to the streets in protest” 

“The case has been a fabrication from start to finish. They let the real criminals free and are hounding Sasha. The real perpetrators really must have friends in high places. Since the law can’t touch these guys, are they trying to lay the guilt on Sasha? Even if this isn’t their aim, I tell you the entire village will be up in arms,” stated resident Arshak Hakobyan. He went on to say that everyone expected the Aragatzotn Jurisdictional Court to exonerate Sasha Davtyan but, in the end, Judge Rouzanna Barseghyan handed down a four year prison sentence. “Yeah, we’re glad that the rape charge was dropped, but we’re still not satisfied. That man really took care of his kids. His wife passed away four years ago and Sasha has been running the household ever since. The investigator got it all wrong when he stated that Sasha beat the kids. That’s why they sentenced him,” added Mr. Hakobyan. The old man said the village was awaiting the decision of the appeals court. He threatened that if the court didn’t exonerate Sasha, the villagers would close the highway running from Yerevan to Gyumri. Another village resident, Asatour Grigoryan, said that nowadays it didn’t take much heroics to block off the roads, but that they’d do it anyway. “I worked alongside Sasha for many years. He’d spend his last cent on those children of his. I speak for the entire village when I say that young and old alike will protest this. I hope they don’t let it come to that.” Resident Lousya Manoukyan is another villager who signed the positive affidavit regarding Sasha. She was one of those who testified on his behalf and who Inspector Vardanyan tried to get to change her story by employing a variety of subtle and crude devices. 

“That inspector destroyed this family”

 “Sasha worked in the stone quarry. He kept his family afloat by waging a struggle with those stones. He made an honest living, not like the inspector or the judge. Vardanyan Rubo kept that girl in the jail for four days without food or water. That inspector destroyed this family. If he wanted to, the inspector could have easily found out that it was Tigran who really raped that young girl,” said Lousya Manoukyan. She told us the details of her interrogation down at the Department of Investigations. “Inspector Rubo wasn’t even ashamed to ask me if I was present when the father raped the girl. I answered; no I wasn’t there, were you? The inspector kept me there from 9 am till 7 pm. He tried all the tricks to trip me up and to spill the beans on Sasha. After several hours of this grilling, I lost my composure and shouted out to the inspector, “Yes I was there during the rape. I held Sasha’s head and you held Anahit’s feet’. The inspector then said I should be ashamed of myself. Can you believe it?” She remembers that a large group of cops were in the room during the interrogation and that they each took a turn asking her a question. “It was like they were on a merry-go-round. One entered the room and another left. They had it all planned. At one point they were asking me stuff at the same time. It was total confusion. They couldn’t play me for the fool but I did a good job tripping the up instead,” says Mrs. Manoukyan. They kept the elderly woman at the police station for ten straight hours. Inspector Vardanyan told her that he’d hold her for four days if she didn’t confess and tell the truth. “The truth, as far as the inspector was concerned, is that I accuse the father of the rape. The other police officers were lounging around drinking beer and coffee but they didn’t offer me anything to drink or eat for ten hours. None of them even thought about showing even this minimum of courtesy,” states Mrs. Manoukyan. 

Uncle of the accused returns from Russia 

Rafik Tonoyan, the son of Sasha’s uncle, returned to Armenia from Moscow upon hearing what had happened. “I’ve been living in Russia for the past thirty years and haven’t seen anything like this in all my life. If a father rapes his own girl then the man must hang. I don’t care who he is. I asked the inspector, a university graduate, who must be held accountable for the fact that Sasha spent six months in jail, even though it was proved in court that he didn’t rape his daughter. Now they gave him four years for beating the kids,” says Tonoyan. He says that the four year prison sentence handed down by the court for child beating was a travesty. “Why is it that the inspector is no longer interested in finding out who the real rapist is? So, I guess any multimillionaire can rape a minor and get away with it, right? Is this how the law works in Armenia? Let me tell that inspector that if there is no law here, that the laws are violated left and right, I would be proud to publicly slit the throat of the person who rapes my kid,” stated a visibly angry Rafik Tonoyan. The village neighbors of Sasha Davtyan are waiting for the ruling of the appeals court. They say they will stage mass protests and take drastic measures if the court doesn’t fully exonerate Sasha of all the charges and bring the true criminals, including Inspector Ruben Vardanyan, to justice.