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Three opposition activists in Armenia go on hunger strike to support arrested MP
Interfax News Agency, Russia
April 18 2008
YEREVAN April 18 -- Vardges Gasparian, a member of the Armenian
opposition movement Alternative, who is currently being held at a
penitentiary, joined Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran Arshavir Bozinian
and a widow of a Nagorno-Karabakh war, Zhanna Nersisian, in their
hunger strike in support for arrested parliamentarian Sasun Mikaelian.
Gasparian, Bozinian, and Nersisian have said they will not stop
their hunger strike until Mikaelian has been freed, Armenian media
have reported.
Mikaelian and three other parliamentarians - Akop Akopian, Myasnik
Maklhasian, and Khachatur Sukiasian - were earlier stripped of their
parliamentarian immunity.
The Armenian prosecutor general on March 4 requested the parliament
that it sanction the arrest of the four parliamentarians on suspicion
of involvement in mass unrest in Yerevan on March 1.
Mikaelian has been charged with the organization of mass unrest and an
attempt to usurp power. Akopian and Malkhasian have also been arrested,
and Sukiasian is currently wanted.
Refusing to accept the official results of the February 19 presidential
elections, former Armenian President and presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian and his followers organized protests in Yerevan on March
1, which later grew into clashes with police, in which 10 people were
killed and more than 200 injured.
Interfax News Agency, Russia
April 18 2008
YEREVAN April 18 -- Vardges Gasparian, a member of the Armenian
opposition movement Alternative, who is currently being held at a
penitentiary, joined Nagorno-Karabakh war veteran Arshavir Bozinian
and a widow of a Nagorno-Karabakh war, Zhanna Nersisian, in their
hunger strike in support for arrested parliamentarian Sasun Mikaelian.
Gasparian, Bozinian, and Nersisian have said they will not stop
their hunger strike until Mikaelian has been freed, Armenian media
have reported.
Mikaelian and three other parliamentarians - Akop Akopian, Myasnik
Maklhasian, and Khachatur Sukiasian - were earlier stripped of their
parliamentarian immunity.
The Armenian prosecutor general on March 4 requested the parliament
that it sanction the arrest of the four parliamentarians on suspicion
of involvement in mass unrest in Yerevan on March 1.
Mikaelian has been charged with the organization of mass unrest and an
attempt to usurp power. Akopian and Malkhasian have also been arrested,
and Sukiasian is currently wanted.
Refusing to accept the official results of the February 19 presidential
elections, former Armenian President and presidential candidate Levon
Ter-Petrosian and his followers organized protests in Yerevan on March
1, which later grew into clashes with police, in which 10 people were
killed and more than 200 injured.