The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Armenia violated the rights of a conscript who died while on duty in 2014, finding serious shortcomings in the investigation into his death.
In its judgment in Margaryan v. Armenia (application no. 54266/17), the Court unanimously found violations of Articles 2 (right to life and investigation) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The conscript was found in a trench near his sentry post with a gunshot wound to the chest. Armenian authorities concluded that he had died by suicide, relying largely on a posthumous psychiatric report that cited witnesses describing his “strange behaviour”. The Court noted that this assessment conflicted with the observations of his military superiors while he was alive.
The Court found that the investigation had failed to provide a plausible explanation for the death and had not seriously examined other possible scenarios before being closed.
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It also found that the conscript’s father had no legal avenue in Armenia to establish the State’s liability for his son’s death or seek compensation.
The Court ordered Armenia to pay the applicant €50,000 in non-pecuniary damages.
