The RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan on June 13 had a meeting with the delegation headed by Thomas O. Melia, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of American Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The Head of the RA Special Investigation Service A. Mirzoyan and the Senior Investigator V. Haroutyunyan participated in the meeting.

During the meeting Mr. Melia thanked the Prosecutor General for the meeting and asked to provide information about the preliminary investigation of the criminal cases initiated on the mass riots that had taken place on March 1, 2008 in Yerevan, especially concerning the detection of the circumstances of the deaths of 10 persons.

The RA Prosecutor General A. Hovsepyan presented in detail the work carried out by the preliminary investigation body that is the investigation of the criminal cases, the results and conclusions of the examination, Prosecutor General's recommendations sent to the RA National Security Service and the Police, statements on conducting operative intelligence works and the applications and letters sent to many international organizations including to the US Embassy to Armenia and Thomas Hammarberg, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly requesting professional support of experts.

Aghvan Hovsepyan expressed the readiness to work with an international expert or specialist who could assist the preliminary investigation body. "The criminal case consists of more than 300 volumes, a great number of video recordings have been examined and almost the whole territory of the mass riots and the places where the 10 persons were killed have been revealed, all the special means, weapons that the employees of the law enforcement bodies and the police servicemen possessed that day have been sent to examination and the books of the military divisions including the data concerning who received weapon that day, how many bullets were received and how many were returned, have been seized," said A. Hovsepyan.

Prosecutor General also mentioned that taking into consideration public interest he had tasked the head of the investigation group and the prosecutor supervising the investigation to have a meeting with the mass media twice a month in order to reveal new evidence and new witnesses.

Mr. T. Melia asked for information concerning the results of the detection of the deaths after the assignment of the RA President Serzh Sargsyan and whether the preliminary investigation body succeeded in identifying the guilty persons.

According to Prosecutor General’s Office the head of the investigation group V. Haroutyunyan informed Thomas Melia that the investigation had never been suspended and the preliminary investigation body had always conducted works to detect the crimes in particular the circumstances of the deaths of 10 persons.

"After the assignment of the RA President the investigation group has been staffed, more than 70 witnesses have been interrogated, it has been tasked to carry out operative intelligence works, all the possible version and evidence-base has been reconsidered and 500 persons who were in that scene are to be interrogated", said V. Haroutyunyan.

Prosecutor General mentioned that despite the conducted works the circumstances of the deaths of 10 persons had not been fully detected yet. "In this sense, the questions stated by the public and the successors of the victims are objective, but the obstacles and circumstances that cause difficulties for the preliminary investigation body are also objective that is the events took place at night with the participation of thousands of persons in a dwelling space having several thousand meters of territory. The preliminary investigation body carries out its functions in the legal field to detect the guilty persons and there should be a satisfactory base of evidence in order to identify and prove their accusation in the Court", said A. Hovsepyan.