A maverick activist controversially jailed in Armenia has again gone on hunger strike in an apparent show of defiance against the authorities.
The 33-year-old man, Hayk Kyureghian, was arrested in June 2014 and sentenced the following year to 9 years in prison for firing gunshots to protest against the trial of 14 other activists that staged a violent anti-government demonstration in Yerevan.
Kyureghian fired from an air pistol towards police officers guarding a court building in Yerevan after expressing indignation at what he saw as an unfair trial of those men. He was overpowered and detained by the policemen. The Armenian police said afterwards that the gunfire left several officers lightly injured.
The harsh punishment handed to Kyureghian was denounced as unfair and politically motivated by his family, friends and human rights activists. He has repeatedly gone on hunger strikes since his arrest.
Kyureghian again began refusing food in his Armavir prison cell on September 13. Nikol Pashinian, a leader of the mainstream opposition Yelk alliance, said after visiting the activist on Monday that his latest protest is timed to coincide with Armenia’s approaching independence anniversary. Kyureghian described the hunger strike as “resistance against enemies of our independence,” Pashinian wrote on his Facebook page.
Gor Ghlechian, a spokesman for a Justice Ministry division managing Armenia’s prisons, said Kyureghian was moved to a special cell immediately after notifying the prison administration about the hunger strike. He gave no reason for the protest, Ghlechian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am).
Kyureghian’stwo brothers were among three dozen members and supporters of a fringe opposition group that seized a police station in Yerevan in July 2015. The gunmen laid down their arms after a two-week standoff with security forces which left three police officers dead. They went on two separate trials in June.
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