California Governor Vetoed Parole for Hampig Sassounian, who Killed Turkish Consul in Los Angeles

• 05.18.2017, 20:21
•  America,  World

Ermenihaber

Heeding pleas from Turkish American groups and the Trump administration, Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed parole for an Armenian American who murdered Turkey’s consul general in Los Angeles in 1982, SFGate reports.

Hampig "Harry" Sassounian was 19 when he and a companion, who has not been caught, shot and killed Kemal Arikan as the consul sat in his car at an intersection in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. A group called the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, to which Sassounian reportedly belonged, called a news service shortly afterward and claimed responsibility for the shooting, and other killings of Turkish diplomats, "to demand justice for genocidal crime in Turkey in 1915."

Sentenced to life in prison, Sassounian had been repeatedly denied parole until December, when the state Board of Parole Hearings recommended his release from San Quentin. The board said Sassounian, traumatized by horrific warfare in his native Lebanon as a child, had accepted responsibility for his crime, shown remorse, and participated in numerous treatment and job-training programs in prison.

However, Turkish American groups had urged the governor to deny parole. They were joined by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who sent a letter to the parole board March 28 opposing Sassounian’s release.

The two Trump administration officials called Arikan’s murder "an attack on diplomacy itself."

It is noted that it may be the first time a president’s administration has taken part in a California parole proceeding.

Sassounian’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, called the governor’s action "alarming."

"This was a young kid, clearly swayed by emotion at the time" of the killing, who is now "being used repeatedly as a political football," Geragos said. "I don’t understand why the State Department is involved," he said, and "I didn’t realize that the governor was trying to curry favor with the brutal dictator Erdogan."