US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is deeply disappointed by the court’s decision on the conditional release of the Armenian terrorist Humping Sassunyan, who killed the Turkish Consul General in Los Angeles Kemal Arykan in 1982.
“The United States has always considered the security of diplomats a priority issue and advocated the most severe punishment for those involved in such crimes. We oppose conditional releases. Threating a diplomat is not only a serious crime, but also a threat to diplomacy in general,” in a written statement by the secretary of state quoted by Anadolu.
Blinken reiterated his condolences to the family and friends of the murdered Turkish diplomat and the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the decision of the Los Angeles Supreme Court on the conditional release of the Armenian murderer Kemal Arykan.
Hampig Sassounian, a member of the Armenian terrorist organization Fighters for Justice in the Armenian Genocide (ESAK), who was sentenced to life imprisonment without the right to appeal, was held in the San Quentin prison in California. spent more than 25 years in prison, are now eligible to apply for parole. Sassunyan has repeatedly tried to exercise this right since October 2007.
Hampig Sassunyan and his accomplice Krikor Saliba on January 28, 1982, shot a Turkish diplomat in his car in Los Angeles. Sassunyan was sentenced by the court to life imprisonment. The escaped Saliba was killed in the same year during the conflict in Lebanon.