Saturday, October 30 2021 15:06

ArmInfo.A member of the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) organization Hampig Sassounian, convicted in 1982 for the murder of the Turkish consul Kemal Arkan in Los Angeles and early released, is in Armenia, the  Dashnaktsutyun ARF US office reports.

 "I am glad to write to you from Armenia. After about 40 years, I have the honor to visit my native land, drink native water, breathe the air and feel the warmth  of the family," Sassounian said in a message on the party's Facebook  page.

According to him, throughout the years of imprisonment, he felt the  support of his compatriots and this helped him in difficult moments.

Hampig Sassounian was born in 1963 in Beirut. On February 28, 1982,  at 9:40 am, 19-year-old Sassounian, together with his partner, shot  and killed the Turkish consul Kemal Arikan in his car when he stopped  at a red light at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock  Street in Los Angeles, motivating his act with revenge on the Turkish  regime for the Armenian Genocide in 1915-1923. Eyewitnesses  identified Sassounian as one of those who shot at the Consul General,  his partner was not found. In 1984, Sassounian was sentenced by an  American court to life in prison.

In 2006 and 2010 an American court rejected a pardon appeal by the  convict's defense, and in 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown  prevented Hambik Sassounian's parole. This was facilitated by  numerous appeals from Turkish-American organizations, personally  ex-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as a letter from the US  Attorney General sent to the Governor of California. In December  2019, the State Prisoner Liberation Council decided to release  Sassounian, but State Governor Gavin Newsom has now rejected the  decision. On February 24, 2021, the Los Angeles County Supreme Court  overturned Governor Newsom's decision. The latter announced that he  would no longer appeal against the court's decision. In March 2021,  the decision on Sassounian's parole was announced.