Investigation services mistakenly represent a famous sportsman for a bearer of “criminal sub-culture”
We have published a number of articles covering a case launched by investigation bodies that involves famous sportsman, Armenia’s bodybuilding champion Vahram Hakobyan, who is among the best ten bodybuilding sportsmen in the world. As we continue monitoring the case, it is important to emphasize that the case was built exclusively based on one party’s testimony, as a result of which the famous sportsman is unable to return to Armenia.
According to our information, Vahram Hakobyan has received an offer to join a different country’s federation and represent a different country’s flag, which he may have to accept and stop representing the Armenian flag in international championships any time soon if the harassment against him continues the same way because the prolongation of this situation and limitations pose a serious threat to his sports career.
Even though the case was initially built based on one party’s testimony only and in the actions of pre-investigation bodies there are a number of shortcomings, we will not bring details of the case here yet till the case is properly handled by the court and we have a court decision.
This time we will focus on a different fact that is very interesting in the context of this case: while the case is built on one party’s testimony only, almost all testimonies start with a baseless allegation saying that Vahram Hakobyan is a “representative of criminal sub-culture”, thus putting him on the biased side of the fence, due to which he has been subjected to biased and unfair treatment during the pre-investigation phase.
To collect more details, we have gone back to Vahram Hakobyan’s past and met with famous people who have had close relationship with him during his university years and sports career and asked their opinion about Vahram Hakobyan and what they think about “tagging” him in such biased manner (the interview is available in Armenian language only). We hope that this interview and opinions expressed by these notable individuals will help to perceive Vahram Hakobyan as he is in reality – as a person who has kept Armenia’s flag and honor high – but not the way he is being represented by a biased party.
Prepared by Kamo Mayilyan
