Court orders exhumation in 2001 death linked to Kocharyan’s bodyguard

By Alexander Pracht

A Yerevan court Monday ordered the exhumation of Poghos Poghosyan, who died 24 years ago at a Yerevan cafe, to determine whether his death resulted from an accidental fall or deliberate violence during an altercation with a bodyguard of then-president Robert Kocharyan.

The decision followed a motion by prosecutors seeking a new forensic examination to check for possible bone fractures that could indicate intentional assault.

“We may have a significantly different picture, and the expected result is that bone fractures may be found,” prosecutor Tsovak Mnatsakanyan told the court, citing witness accounts of blows inflicted with a pistol grip.

Poghosyan, a 43-year-old Armenian from Georgia, died in September 2001 after Kocharyan left a cafe in central Yerevan with his entourage. Prosecutors at the time said Poghosyan, who was present at the cafe that day, fell and hit his head on the restroom floor after being reprimanded by bodyguard Aghamal Harutyunyan for greeting the president too casually.

Eyewitnesses, however, alleged that Poghosyan was beaten by several men believed to be Kocharyan’s security agents. Harutyunyan was the only one prosecuted and received a suspended twelve months sentence for involuntary manslaughter in 2002, a verdict widely criticized as a cover-up.

The case was reopened after Armenia’s 2018 Velvet Revolution and Kocharyan’s later prosecution on separate charges. Renewed attention followed statements by British citizen Steven Newton, a witness at the cafe, who claimed that several bodyguards had assaulted Poghosyan.

Later in 2020, prosecutors filed a motion to overturn the 2002 verdict, arguing that new evidence suggested Poghosyan’s death was a group murder. The court granted the request and ordered a retrial.

During ongoing hearings, Newton has given conflicting testimony, prompting prosecutors to seek the exhumation and a new forensic review. Harutyunyan’s defense maintains that the new charges are unfounded.

The exhumation process could be complicated by the fact that Poghosyan was buried in his home country of Georgia, meaning it would require coordination with Georgian authorities and the consent of his family.