Harry Sassounian

Harry M. Sassounian, also known as Hampig Sassounian, is serving a life sentence for the 1982 assassination of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan. He murdered Kemal Arikan at a street intersection in Los Angeles.

Assassination

Arikan was gunned down in his car by two gunmen while waiting at a red light on the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Street in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. President Ronald Reagan condemned the murder as "an apparent act of terrorism".^[1]

Sassounian, hailing from a family of Lebanese Armenian emigres, was identified by witnesses as one of the two gunmen. During the trial, the prosecutors indicated that Sassounian "was motivated to kill Arikan by vengeance for the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turkish Ottomans of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923."

The jury determined that Sassounian, an Armenian immigrant formerly of Pasadena, California, shot Arikan to death, on January 28, 1982 at 9:40am, and particularly that he singled out the victim because of the victim's nationality.^[2] Sassounian was sentenced to life in prison; because the jury determined that the killing targeted Arikan based on his nationality, Sassounian was given no chance of parole.^[3]

Eligibility for parole

In 2002, prosecutors agreed to drop the so-called "national origin" special circumstance of the case, making Sassounian eligible for parole, in exchange for his admitting his guilt and formally apologizing.^[4] “I participated in the murder of Kemal Arikan,” Sassounian read aloud from a letter detailing the plea bargain. “I renounce the use of terrorist tactics to achieve political goals. I regret the suffering of the Arikan family.”^[5]

The California Prison Parole Board rejected Sassounian's demands of release in 2006, 2010 and 2013.^[6]

His justice costs were once paid by ARF using funds raised for this purpose.^[7]

Notes