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HAMPIG "HARRY" SASSOUNIAN DENIED PAROLE FOR HIS ROLE IN 1982 WESTWOOD ASSASSINATION
The Beverly Hills Courier
http://67.59.172.92/article/Local_News/Local_News/Hampig_Harry_Sassounian_denied_parole_for_his_role_in_1982_Westwood_assassination/70504
Aug 5 2010
Hampig "Harry" Sassounian was denied parole today for his role in
assassinating a Turkish diplomat in Westwood in 1982.
A parole board panel meeting at the California Men's Colony in San
Luis Obispo ruled that Sassounian, an Armenian immigrant who lived
in Pasadena, will not be up for parole again until 2013.
Sassounian was convicted in 1984 in the shooting death of Turkish
Consul General Kemal Arikan and sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
A federal appeals court overturned the jury's special circumstances
finding of murder because of national origin, which had made him
eligible for the life sentence without the possibility of parole.
In 2002, Sassounian signed a statement renouncing terrorism and the
prosecution agreed not to go forward with a retrial on a special
circumstance allegation.
Sassounian was resentenced to 25 years to life in prison, with the
possibility of parole.
Arikan, 54, died shortly after two armed men approached his car from
both sides while he was waiting for a red light at the intersection
of Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Avenue on Jan. 28, 1982 and fired
several rounds that hit him in the head and chest.
At trial, a jailhouse informant testified that Sassounian told him
he killed Arikan to "get revenge on what the Turkish people did to
his people.'
The Turks massacred more than a million Armenians from 1915 to 1918
in their historic homeland in eastern Turkey.
From: A. Papazian
The Beverly Hills Courier
http://67.59.172.92/article/Local_News/Local_News/Hampig_Harry_Sassounian_denied_parole_for_his_role_in_1982_Westwood_assassination/70504
Aug 5 2010
Hampig "Harry" Sassounian was denied parole today for his role in
assassinating a Turkish diplomat in Westwood in 1982.
A parole board panel meeting at the California Men's Colony in San
Luis Obispo ruled that Sassounian, an Armenian immigrant who lived
in Pasadena, will not be up for parole again until 2013.
Sassounian was convicted in 1984 in the shooting death of Turkish
Consul General Kemal Arikan and sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
A federal appeals court overturned the jury's special circumstances
finding of murder because of national origin, which had made him
eligible for the life sentence without the possibility of parole.
In 2002, Sassounian signed a statement renouncing terrorism and the
prosecution agreed not to go forward with a retrial on a special
circumstance allegation.
Sassounian was resentenced to 25 years to life in prison, with the
possibility of parole.
Arikan, 54, died shortly after two armed men approached his car from
both sides while he was waiting for a red light at the intersection
of Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Avenue on Jan. 28, 1982 and fired
several rounds that hit him in the head and chest.
At trial, a jailhouse informant testified that Sassounian told him
he killed Arikan to "get revenge on what the Turkish people did to
his people.'
The Turks massacred more than a million Armenians from 1915 to 1918
in their historic homeland in eastern Turkey.
From: A. Papazian