"Haykakan Zhamanak": Armenian soldier was killed by fellow serviceman.

Armenian conscript Armen Adibekyan, reported dead near Chinari village (Tavush region) on February 23, was killed by a fellow serviceman’s bullet, not an Azerbaijani sniper, the paper has learned.

An expert of the Helsinki Association, Ruben Martirosyan, has told Haykakan Zhamanak that the truth became known to him after a conversation with Yura Martirosyan, the chief of the Defense Ministry’s Central Administration.

“It was clear from the very first moment that the soldier was killed by a fellow serviceman. A sniper from the enemy’s troops could not have technically hit such a blow,” Martirosyan was quoted as saying.

Speaking to the paper, an officer of the Ministry’s Investigative Service, Mary Sarsgsyan neither confirmed nor denied the statement, saying only that the Service did not yet have anything new to report.

Sargsyan was further quoted as saying that a criminal case was instituted immediately after the incident, the official reports suggesting that the perpetrator was the enemy’s sniper.