On Tuesday, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Gegharkunik Province found an Armenian soldier guilty of dereliction of duty and involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment for his role in the January 2023 barracks fire that left 15 soldiers dead.
The former soldier, identified only by his initials, R.M., was duty officer at the time of the incident and ‘failed to prevent the “dangerous actions” of another officer, as he had left the barracks during his watch to speak on his mobile phone’, Armenpress wrote.
Armenpress cited the indictment, which argued that R.M.’s negligence led to the deaths of his fellow soldiers, as he was supposed to be responsible for them at the time.
The fire, according to investigators, broke out when another officer attempted to ignite a heater using gasoline in a military barracks in the village of Azat, Gegharkunik.
Meanwhile, the second officer who allegedly attempted to ignite the heater is facing aggravated involuntary manslaughter charges. Court proceedings in his case are still ongoing.
According to local residents, the barracks was an ‘ordinary house’ before 2020, with soldiers only settling there after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War.
In a cabinet meeting following the deadly incident, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Defence Minister Suren Papikyan said the preliminary findings of a military investigation suggested that the fire was caused by a serious violation of fire safety rules.
According to Pashinyan, an officer from the unit had used a ‘large amount of petrol’ in the woodstove used for heating the barracks, with Papikyan adding that the use of petrol in woodstoves was prohibited.
Pashinyan said that everyone responsible for the incident should be ‘harshly’ punished.
Ani Avetisyan
