Background
The applicant’s son, A. Margaryan, was a conscript in the Armenian army serving in Nagorno-Karabakh. On 4 December 2014, he was found in a trench near his sentry post with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. Armenian authorities opened a criminal investigation that day and ultimately concluded that he had died by suicide.
The applicant challenged that conclusion, pointing to unanswered questions about the chronology of events, the absence of identifiable fingerprints on the rifle, incomplete gunshot-residue testing, and the possibility that his son had been targeted because he had testified in criminal proceedings against another serviceman. Domestic prosecutors and courts upheld the decision to terminate the investigation.
The Court’s Holding
The Court unanimously found violations of Article 2 in both its procedural and substantive limbs. Although the investigation began promptly and was completed without unjustified delay, it was insufficient and inadequate. Investigators accepted suicide as the working explanation from the outset and failed to resolve material inconsistencies about the gunshot, the discovery of the body, and whether A. Margaryan was alive when found.
The Court also identified unexplained forensic shortcomings: no adequate account of the absence of fingerprints on the rifle, no determination of firing distance, and no meaningful follow-up after one serviceman tested positive for copper particulates consistent with possible gunshot residue. Given the unreliable investigation, Armenia had not provided a plausible explanation for the death of a conscript in the authorities’ care. The Court further found an Article 13 violation because no civil or administrative remedy allowed the applicant to establish State liability and obtain enforceable compensation independently of the criminal investigation’s outcome.
Key Takeaways
- For deaths during compulsory military service, the State must provide a satisfactory and convincing explanation of what occurred.
- A prompt investigation may still violate Article 2 if it adopts a suicide theory prematurely and leaves decisive factual and forensic issues unresolved.
- Article 13 requires a route for bereaved relatives to establish State liability and seek compensation without making relief depend on a criminal prosecution or conviction.
Why It Matters
The judgment reinforces the heightened Article 2 responsibility owed to conscripts, who are under the State’s control. It stresses that an investigation must test alternative explanations for a death rather than simply assemble evidence consistent with an initial suicide hypothesis.
The Court awarded the applicant EUR 50,000 in non-pecuniary damage, plus any applicable tax.