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Wednesday, 12 November 2003

ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT GUNMAN AGAIN EXPLAINS MOTIVES

Published in News Digest

By empty (11/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his final court speech on 10-11 November, Nairi Hunanian said he and four accomplices charged with shooting eight senior officials in the Armenian parliament in October 1999 intended only to remove Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian and his \"brutal\" cabinet, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. Hunanian said that by killing Sargsian, he helped to \"restore constitutional order\" and strengthened the position of President Robert Kocharian and Armenia\'s international reputation. Hunanian said he never intended to force Kocharian\'s resignation.
In his final court speech on 10-11 November, Nairi Hunanian said he and four accomplices charged with shooting eight senior officials in the Armenian parliament in October 1999 intended only to remove Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian and his \"brutal\" cabinet, RFE/RL\'s Yerevan bureau reported. Hunanian said that by killing Sargsian, he helped to \"restore constitutional order\" and strengthened the position of President Robert Kocharian and Armenia\'s international reputation. Hunanian said he never intended to force Kocharian\'s resignation. He did not mention in his final speech the fact that he initially implicated Kocharian\'s then chief of staff Aleksan Harutiunian in the killings but subsequently retracted that testimony. Nor did Hunanian address the still open question of whether he acted on his own initiative or at the behest of others. (RFE/RL)
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