Last night being that I was homesick, I went to visit some friends from Martuni who just drove to Yerevan. It's really interesting how good I feel to be around such friends.
While we were sitting and talking, in came another guest who also just drove in from Stepanagert and didn't know who I was and since I was not talking, was probably very tired and figured I was just another native.
Being a fly on the wall, the guy started to tell us news from Martuni and being that this guy was a high-ranking government official, the news he had to share was common, but had inside details that only the people at the top could know.
It seems that there was an attempted abduction of a girl for a forced marriage and what made it interesting was that for the most part, the people involved are people I knew, so it was in some way a gossip session, which is something even guys do here.
The man was telling us that it seems the guy had noticed this girl 7 or 8 years ago when she was a schoolgirl and fell in love then.
The guy used the reason of needing to send a bag of stuff to Yerevan to come to the girls house to drop off the bag and had called to ask they send the girl out front of the house to receive the bag. The girl did this and with the help of others in the car, they forcefully pulled her in the car.
The woman of the house (it may have been her mother), stood in front of the car to not allow them to take the girl. Someone got out of the car and pushed or dragged the woman to one side to let the car pass. They sped off and picked up Garik's taxi to take them off to someone's house.
Since it turns out that girl is related by law to this high-ranking government official, calls are made to the Minister of Internal Affairs (which is the ministry that deals with all law enforcement departments), who in the process of looking for this girl, I guess got the Prosecutor General and as this official told us "everyone somehow got involved".
Within 2 or 3 hours, they found the girl, who was at someone's house sitting at a table where the suspects and his cohorts were eating a meal.
They retrieved the girl and denied the high-ranking official to drop all charges in return for doing what he wanted to the guy and his cohorts, short of killing them and was told that a law is in force (I'm not sure if this is a new law or not), that the first part (I didn't really understand what this meant) gives a sentence of 1 to 6 years and the second part is 4 to 8 years. In there is not just the punishment for the guy who wanted the girl, but also his cohorts.
The new Martuni chief of police, Hyeaser, had suggested that they shake the suspects down for $3k (in bribes), which the high-ranking official asked Hyeaser if he didn't think it was a bit inappropriate to try to make money from someone who violated his relative? For him to even do this I would think is enough of a reason to dismiss him from his post and I think it would not be such a bad idea to push this idea to the Minister of the Interior when I get back to Artsakh.
I'm glad to see that there is a law in place to protect girls from being abducted, but seeing that if the victim was not a high-ranking official's relative, then the complaint would have only gotten to the chief of police and in that case, $3k could have been paid and the case would have been dropped, which would send out a message (if such cases have not already done this) that if you want a girl who does not want you, have $3k ready to pay, which in some cases is what people spent to having a wedding and in the case of being in "love", would be worth paying to get what you want.
It sounds to me like this law was created in a genuine attempt to protect girls, but I'm sure in many cases is being used not to protect girls, but to enrich some very corrupt people, since you don't hear much about people being prosecuted for such a crime, but you do here all the time about forced abductions.
While we were sitting and talking, in came another guest who also just drove in from Stepanagert and didn't know who I was and since I was not talking, was probably very tired and figured I was just another native.
Being a fly on the wall, the guy started to tell us news from Martuni and being that this guy was a high-ranking government official, the news he had to share was common, but had inside details that only the people at the top could know.
It seems that there was an attempted abduction of a girl for a forced marriage and what made it interesting was that for the most part, the people involved are people I knew, so it was in some way a gossip session, which is something even guys do here.
The man was telling us that it seems the guy had noticed this girl 7 or 8 years ago when she was a schoolgirl and fell in love then.
The guy used the reason of needing to send a bag of stuff to Yerevan to come to the girls house to drop off the bag and had called to ask they send the girl out front of the house to receive the bag. The girl did this and with the help of others in the car, they forcefully pulled her in the car.
The woman of the house (it may have been her mother), stood in front of the car to not allow them to take the girl. Someone got out of the car and pushed or dragged the woman to one side to let the car pass. They sped off and picked up Garik's taxi to take them off to someone's house.
Since it turns out that girl is related by law to this high-ranking government official, calls are made to the Minister of Internal Affairs (which is the ministry that deals with all law enforcement departments), who in the process of looking for this girl, I guess got the Prosecutor General and as this official told us "everyone somehow got involved".
Within 2 or 3 hours, they found the girl, who was at someone's house sitting at a table where the suspects and his cohorts were eating a meal.
They retrieved the girl and denied the high-ranking official to drop all charges in return for doing what he wanted to the guy and his cohorts, short of killing them and was told that a law is in force (I'm not sure if this is a new law or not), that the first part (I didn't really understand what this meant) gives a sentence of 1 to 6 years and the second part is 4 to 8 years. In there is not just the punishment for the guy who wanted the girl, but also his cohorts.
The new Martuni chief of police, Hyeaser, had suggested that they shake the suspects down for $3k (in bribes), which the high-ranking official asked Hyeaser if he didn't think it was a bit inappropriate to try to make money from someone who violated his relative? For him to even do this I would think is enough of a reason to dismiss him from his post and I think it would not be such a bad idea to push this idea to the Minister of the Interior when I get back to Artsakh.
I'm glad to see that there is a law in place to protect girls from being abducted, but seeing that if the victim was not a high-ranking official's relative, then the complaint would have only gotten to the chief of police and in that case, $3k could have been paid and the case would have been dropped, which would send out a message (if such cases have not already done this) that if you want a girl who does not want you, have $3k ready to pay, which in some cases is what people spent to having a wedding and in the case of being in "love", would be worth paying to get what you want.
It sounds to me like this law was created in a genuine attempt to protect girls, but I'm sure in many cases is being used not to protect girls, but to enrich some very corrupt people, since you don't hear much about people being prosecuted for such a crime, but you do here all the time about forced abductions.
No comments:
Post a Comment