Karabakh war veterans urge retired army colonel to stop hunger strike (video)
The friends of Karabakh war veteran Volodya Avetisyan, who has been on hunger strike for 11 days, today gathered outside the Vardashen prison to urge their friend to stop the strike. Gagik Sarukhanyan, a member of the Founding Parliament movement, says Volodya Avetisyan and the other three inmates, who joined the hunger strike, have achieved their goal. “Minister of Justice Arpine Hovhannisyan said they will deal with independent commissions and will take steps to address the problems in the system,” he said. Volodya Avetisyan started a hunger strike in the Vardashen penitentiary on October 30 as a sign of protest against the decision to an independent commission which rejected for the second time Avetisyan’s request for parole. Freedom fighter Tigran Petrosyan says the commission took a wrong decision by rejecting Avetisyan’s request for early release. “The entire trial showed that Avetisyan was innocent and even the people who sued him admitted that he did not have any intention to take money from them,” Petrosyan added. Avetisyan was convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison in July 2014. He has been in custody for two years. The retired army colonel is a father of six children, three of whom are minors.
