A soldier serving at a Russian military base in Armenia has been detained on suspicion of killing an Armenian woman, law-enforcement authorities in Yerevan said on Tuesday.
The 57-year-old woman, Julieta Ghazarian, was beaten up in Gyumri and died during her transfer to a local hospital on December 2.
An Armenian media outlet reported shortly afterwards that a Russian soldier is suspected of brutally assaulting Ghazarian. The Russian Embassy in Yerevan strongly denied the report last week.
Arevik Khachatrian, a spokeswoman for Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that a soldier from the Russian base headquartered in Gyumri has been arrested in connection with the woman’s death. She did not give any details.
A senior prosecutor in Gyumri said the suspect is being held in detention in Armenia’s second largest city. But he refused to identify the latter.
In 2015, another Russia soldier murdered seven members of an Armenian family in Gyumri. A local court in August 2016 sentenced private Valery Permyakov to life in prison. He was later transferred to Russia to serve his sentence.