Justice for Armenia, a non-partisan independent forum, delivered a letter to the Armenian Embassy in London today expressing our anger about the unfair handing of Artur Sargsyan's case, which resulted in a loss of his life, demanding fair and transparent investigation of the events. 

Counsellor Tigran Galstyan met our representative Garo Berberian at the Embassy and promised to pass on the letter to Ambassador Sarkissian.

Read the full text of the letter below:

Dear Mr Ambassador, Mr Sarkissian

We are writing to you as members of the ‘Justice for Armenia’ group in the UK, as we are extremely concerned about the cases of human rights violations in Armenia, and now with the terrible news of the death of Artur Sargsyan, the situation of rights and justice in Armenia is critical.

Artur was arrested for only taking food to the Sasna Dzrer. He had no connection with Sasna Dzrer and was driven solely by his conscience with the humanitarian act of taking food, from one human being to other human beings.

Artur was released and then rearrested on the 10th of February 2017 for allegedly not showing up at a court hearing, after being re-arrested he went on hunger strike, objecting to the illegal and illegitimate interventions in his arrest and prosecution.

Artur was suffering from disabilities, and as a result of the hunger strike his health deteriorated rapidly. He was only released on bail to a hospital because of pressure from opposition, civic and rights groups and thus did not die a free man.

We have witnessed how the judges and the officials, including the Minister of Justice let Artur suffer while his health condition was ignored whilst being held in custody.

This situation is a shameful and tragic page for Armenia’s jurisdiction. A young, bright, caring man has died because Armenia is descending into an authoritarian state.

The Rule of Law is equal application of the law: fair and just application of the law to all its citizens. The law applies to everyone, the government is not above it: the government and all state officials are bound by the Law.

We demand that all those that are implicated in Artur’s inhumane treatment whilst in captivity are removed from their posts until a full independent investigation takes place.

We demand that an independent autopsy is carried out without any political interference.

JFA 
Citizens of Armenia and UK Armenian Citizens