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“Those materials of the Avetisyan family murder case that we have so far become familiar with contain insufficient grounds to say that Valery Permyakov did not act alone,” lawyer Yervand Varosyan, a representative of the Avetisyan family’s legal successors (relatives of the Avetisyans were recognized as their legal successor), said at a press conference today when commenting on statements of the Avetisyan’s relatives who said they do not believe that Permyakov acted alone.

The lawyer said that in order to make such statements, one has to be thoroughly familiar with the evidence given by Permyakov during the investigation when he provided details of his actions in the home of the Avetisyans.

“At the moment we only have conclusions of experts. We need detailed evidence of Permyakov to compare it with the available information, “ Vraosyan said noting that if the evidence of Permyakov differs from the expert conclusions, in that case one can express doubts.

As was reported, last Wednesday, August 12, Valery Permyakov, a soldier of the Russian 102nd military base in Armenia who is charged with killing the Avetisyan family, was sentenced to 10 years in a high-security prison on charges of desertion and theft of weapons. The Russian garrison military court in Armenia subordinate to the North Caucasus district military court passed a sentence on three articles of Russia’s Criminal Code – desertion with weapons, theft of weapons and ammunition, and illegal purchase, sale, possession and carrying of weapons and ammunition. The murder case will be heard later by an Armenian court. In July, 9 volumes of materials of the criminal case of the murder of the Avetisyan family in Gyumri were handed over by Russia’s Investigative Committee to the Investigative Committee of Armenia. Besides Lusine Sahakyan, lawyers Yervand Varosyan, Yerem Sargsyan and Mihran Poghosyan will represent the interests of legal successors of the Avetisyans.

To remind, the press service of the Armenian police said in January that the ambulance service received a call on January 12, 2015 that several people were found dead with gunshot wounds in house N 188 on Myasnikyan Street in the city of Gyumri, Armenia’s Shirak province. A task force sent to the scene revealed that an unknown person shot and killed 6 members of the Avetisyan family in their home. The seventh member of the family, 6-month-old Seryozha Avetisyan, was hospitalized with stab wounds and died on January 19.

On the night of January 13 Russian frontier guards detained conscript of the Russian 102nd military base in Armenia Valery Permyakov – the man suspected of killing the Avetisyan family in Gyumri – during an attempt to cross the Armenian-Turkish border near Yerasghavors village in Shirak province of Armenia. Permyakov gave evidence, pleading guilty to the crime. He is currently held in custody. Investigative Committee of Armenia opened a criminal case against V. Permyakov under Article 104 part 2 point 1 of the Criminal Code – murder of two or more people.