Narek Samsonian agreed to end the hunger strike after being examined by doctors there, according to one of his lawyers, Ruben Melikian, who was allowed to visit him.
“He said the doctor explained all the consequences of his illness and the impact of the hunger strike and ordered his immediate hospitalization,” said Melikian. “Taking all this into account, he stopped the hunger strike.”
Melikian said later in the day that his client was sent back to the Armavir prison 50 kilometers west of Yerevan after spending several hours in the civilian hospital. Samsonian’s renewed hospitalization and surgery recommended by doctors depend on the results of his blood tests, he said.
Melikian also said that Samsonian refused to undergo a medical rehabilitation course required for people who have refused food for many days. This means that “he will effectively continue the hunger strike,” added the lawyer.
Samsonian and fellow podcast co-host Vazgen Saghatelian are prosecuted for verbally abusing parliament speaker Alen Simonian in response to his personal insults. Simonian branded them “sons of a b*tch” when he commented on their seven-hour interview with former President Serzh Sarkisian broadcast live on YouTube in early November. Samsonian and Saghatelian responded to him with offensive language.
Simonian demanded criminal proceedings against them on November 11, saying that they not only insulted but also threatened him. Two days later, officers of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) demonstratively detained them, searching their homes and their Imnemnimi podcast studio in the process. Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, swiftly charged them with hooliganism.
The two vocal critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian continued to strongly deny the accusation when they went on trial on January 9. Samsonian announced his hunger strike in the courtroom right after the presiding judge extended his and Saghatelian’s arrest by three months.
Armenia - NSS officers arrest pro-opposition podcasters Narek Samsonian (right) and Vazgen Saghatelian, November 13, 2025.
Samsonian already underwent a medical examination at a hospital in the Armenian town of Vagharshapat on Sunday after what his collaborators described as a serious deterioration of his health. He was taken back to prison hours later.
The chief medical official of Armenia’s national penitentiary system insisted on Monday that his life is not in danger. Samsonian’s friends and supporters claimed the opposite as they staged a protest outside the office of the country’s human rights ombudswoman. In Melikian’s words, the podcaster looked “much worse and exhausted” on Thursday.
Dozens of other critics of Pashinian, including an opposition mayor and three archbishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, have also been arrested in recent months in what the Armenian opposition calls a pre-election government crackdown on dissent. The authorities deny that they are political prisoners.
Also, Armenian prosecutors have reportedly been monitoring people posting angry comments about Pashinian on social media and have even ordered criminal investigations into some of them. No Pashinian allies or supporters are known to have been prosecuted for offending or voicing threats against opposition politicians.
Late last month, one government loyalist publicly called for the murder of Catholicos Garegin II, the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church whom Pashinian has been trying to depose. He has not been charged or even interrogated.