Karabakh war veteran goes on termless hunger strike in Armenian prison

Sarkis Atspanyan, former participant of the Karabakh war, activist of the opposition, currently a citizen of France, sentenced to two months of deprivation of freedom, has started a termless hunger-strike in prison "Vardashen" in Armenia; he demands to stop the illegal criminal prosecution against him. Mr Atspanyan also protests against tapping his telephone conversations and control of his correspondence.

We remind you that last month the court of general jurisdiction, presided by Judge Gayane Karakhanyan satisfied the petition of the Service of National Security to apply a two-month arrest to Sarkis Atspanyan as a freedom deprivation measure.

The war veteran was arrested under Article 333 of the Criminal Code "False denouncement".

On November 4, Sarkis Atspanyan, veteran of the Karabakh war and chairman of the NGO named "Sardarabad", made a statement that, according to reliable data at his disposal, in the near future an attempt will be made on incumbent President Serzh Sarkisyan.

On November 11, a group of political prisoners disseminated a statement with resolute criticism of Atspanyan's arrest. The authors of the statement, among whom the former Deputy General Public Prosecutor Gagik Dzhangiryan, member of the board of the "Republic" Party, former Minister for State Revenues Smbat Aivazyan, activists of the opposition David Matevosyan, Ashot Zakaryan and others, have treated his arrest as a dangerous precedent and named Mr Atspanyan to be a political prisoner.