Vardan Ghavalbabunts
Vardan Ghavalbabunts 
| |
|---|---|
| Name in Armenian | Վարդան Ղավալբաբունց |
| Languages | Armenian |
| Ethnicities | Armenia |
| Dialects | Eastern Armenian |
Jan 10, 2019
Former March 1st investigator Vahagn Harutyunyan, who is facing criminal charges for evidence tampering and assault, is facing more accusations by a Levon Ter-Petrosyan ally Vardan Ghavalbabunts. (LTP, Pashinyan and Ghavalbabunts were allies against Serzh's election on 2008).
Ghavalbabunts was arrested on March 16th for allegedly participating in a hooliganism and beating a cop (not during March 1st shootings, but earlier that day).
He claims he was trying to stop the crowd from hitting the cops after Pashinyan told the crowd to calm down, but the crowd continued to chase the cops. He allegedly helped the cops get inside a building. According to him, the cop later mistook (or purposely lied) that he was one of the assailants. He presented a video recording that would show he was helping the cops, but the judge refused to accept the tape. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison based on a single testimony by one police officer, before being released next year as part of an amnesty.
The day he was arrested, he told the law enforcement agents to watch the videos where he helped the cops. They did, and the same day decided to release him free. But then someone received a call, and he was taken to prosecutor's office, where March 1st investigator Vahagn Harutyunyan and few others allegedly begun to beat him and demand a false report about his immediate boss, who was a close LTP ally.
The doctor at the time recorded finding evidence of body injuries on him. Ghavalbabunts hopes the new authorities will re-open the case.