15:41, 22 January 2016

Vardan Vardanyan, figurant of "Million Mask March", goes on hunger strike

Defendants Yke Arutyunyan, Vardan Vardanyan and Shagen Arutyunyan (from left to right). Photo by Armine Martirosyan for the ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Vardanyan refused to eat and joined the hunger strike of activist Yke Kyuregyan.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on January 14 Gevorg Safaryan declared a hunger strike demanding to place him into a solitary cell. His protest was supported by his cellmate Yke Kyuregyan. On January 16, after being transferred to a solitary cell, Safaryan stopped his hunger strike, but on January 20 he resumed it, this time in protest against the decision of prison bosses to transfer him to a general cell. January 18, Kyuregyan announced his refusal to drink water (a "dry" hunger strike).

Vardan Vardanyan was sentenced to 5.5 years in prison for participation in the "Million Mask March" on November 5, 2013, organized by Shant Arutyunyan, the leader of the "Tsegakron" Party. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed at the penitentiary department of the Armenian Ministry of Justice that today Vardan Vardanyan was placed into a special prison cell for hunger-strikers.

On January 21, Shant Arutyunyan also joined the hunger strike. On the same day it became known that the Court of Cassation had accepted a complaint on the case of Yke Kyuregyan, who was sentenced to nine years for shooting at the courthouse.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Armine Martirosyan

Source: CK correspondent