Osipyan begins hunger strike after arrest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Artur Osipyan, head of the Artsakh Revolutionary Party, who was detained and later arrested after an argument with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, has begun a hunger strike. His lawyer Davit Hovhannisyan announced the decision, Sputnik Armenia reported.

“Osipyan has been on hunger strike since the moment of his detention,” the lawyer said.

According to Hovhannisyan, Osipyan had pre-existing health problems.

“The medical documents were submitted to the court,” he said.

The lawyer noted that the hunger strike could further damage Osipyan’s health under the current circumstances. According to Hovhannisyan, Osipyan considers himself a political prisoner because he was deprived of liberty for freely expressing his opinion. He added that the defense plans to appeal the court’s decision to place Osipyan in pretrial detention for two months.

Former Artsakh state minister and former human rights ombudsman Artak Beglaryan said Osipyan’s arrest was “another act of retaliation and repression by Pashinyan against opponents and Artsakh Armenians.”

“Not to mention his disgraceful, hateful and insulting statements directed at Artur and the people of Artsakh, which clearly demonstrate his values and ideology.

Artur behaved legally and constructively toward Pashinyan, whereas in Artsakh Pashinyan behaved far more destructively, but that was tolerated by the authorities in the name of democratic principles and preserving public solidarity.

This is the Armenia led by the ‘democrat’ Pashinyan, and it will become even worse if he is somehow re-elected,” Beglaryan said.

Artur Osipyan was detained on May 18 after an argument with Pashinyan. Earlier, he had written on social media: “If anyone knows where Nikol is, tell me so I can knock the fluff out of him. He has eaten our flesh.”

During a campaign event on May 18, Osipyan accused Pashinyan of ignoring and supporting actions by former Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan. He also said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was demanding the return of 300,000 Azerbaijanis to Armenia. Pashinyan responded angrily, first saying that the people of Artsakh had not built Karabakh and that everyone had looted it, then adding that he was proud to have pulled Armenia out of that “trap.”

After the exchange, a scuffle broke out and people surrounding Pashinyan attempted to remove Osipyan from the area. Pashinyan continued shouting through a loudspeaker: “Let the pseudo-elites of Karabakh get lost. Who are these people? Get out altogether. Artur Osipyan, you smashed your head against the wall. You should have gone and died instead of our children. Looting animals.”

Osipyan was placed in pretrial detention for two months. Criminal proceedings were initiated against him under Article 330, Part 2, Point 3 of the Criminal Code (public calls for violence, public justification or promotion of violence, and dissemination of materials for that purpose), Article 297, Part 1 (hooliganism), and Article 211, Part 1 (coercion to conduct or refrain from campaigning, or otherwise obstructing campaigning).