Nagorno-Karabakh: ensign detained for mutilating soldier

On December 14, an incident occurred in the military unit "Egnikner" in Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in the soldier Narek Avetisyan, 18, losing his right eye. On December 17, Ensign Armen Tovmasyan was detained as a suspect of mutilating the soldier.

The Helsinki Association reported the details of the incident. Ensign Tovmasyan wanted to send Narek to be on duty, but the latter refused. In response, Tovmasyan began beating the soldier, causing a trauma. Narek was taken to hospital in Stepanakert; however, the militaries who accompanied him warned that if asked about the origin of the trauma, he should say that "a spanner was dropped from above and hit the eye."

From there, Narek was taken to the Malayan ophthalmology clinic in Yerevan, where his eye was taken away, the "News-Armenia" reports.

"A very grave and heavy trauma; of course, restoration of vision was out of question, because the entire eye had leaked out," the Radio Liberty quotes Georgiy Grigoryan, the head of the department of vascular pathology of the above clinic.

According to investigators, Ensign Armen Tovmasyan slapped his hand and a metal chain in it at the face of Conscript Narek Avetisyan, which caused the trauma, the NEWS.am reports.

S far, the position of the suspect and his representatives was not announced.