CIS

Home page

CIS

Police General confirms sniper fire during Yerevan riots

13 December 2008 09:27 (UTC +04:00)

Lieutenant-General Grigor Grigorian, who commanded the Police Troops at the time, made the statements at a closed session of an Armenian parliamentary commission investigating the unrest.
Grigorian told the commission that he ordered a sniper to open fire at a protester who shot and fatally wounded one of his soldiers, Tigran Abgarian, during the interior troopsâ€™ retreat from the barricaded area. â€œHe instructed the sniper to take up a convenient position and try to neutralize the individual who opened fire from that intersection and was going to keep firing,â€ he said. â€œThe sniper shot in that direction and, according to the police information, wounded that individual in the leg.â€
The latter managed to escape and was never caught by the police, he added. The general insisted that the sniper did not kill anyone. â€œThe sniper fired only one shot,â€ he said.
Grigorian suggested on Friday that his troops were not responsible for any of those deaths. He also stood by police claims that the protesters used firearms and hand grenades during the clashes.