Armenia: Volodya Avetisyan announces endless hunger strike

Volodya Avetisyan, a reserve colonel and a veteran of the Karabakh War, who had been convicted for a fraud in Armenia, has gone on a protest hunger strike after his petition for conditional early relief (CER) was rejected.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 20, 2013, Volodya Avetisyan, an active participant in the protests of Karabakh war veterans, was detained. Investigators accused him of fraud. On July 17, 2014, the court sentenced him to six years of imprisonment and a fine.

It became known today that the independent commission for CER refused to satisfy Avetisyan's petition on CER or change his remaining term for softer punishment.

His hunger strike is reported on the page of the initiative group "In Support of Colonel Volodya Avetisyan" on the Facebook.

The protest, as noted by the initiative group, is aimed against the decision of the independent commission to reject the CER.

The fact of Avetisyan's hunger strike was confirmed by the penitentiary Department of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia.

Gor Glechyan, the press secretary of the Department, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Volodya Avetisyan was transferred to a separate cell intended for prisoners on hunger strike. According to his story, Avetisyan will be under control of medics.

It should be noted that the decision of the independent commission to reject Avetisyan's petition, issued this September, was already the second one. His first petition on the CER was rejected in July this year.

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