Members of Sasna Tsrer sentenced to prison terms for 2016 Yerevan hostage crisis

12:48,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The ringleaders of the 2016 Yerevan police station attack were sentenced to prison terms today by Judge Mesrop Makyan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction.

Pavel Manukyan, the leader of the group known as the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun), was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Another member of the syndicate, Smbat Barseghyan, was sentenced to 25 years on aggravated murder charges for the killing of the on-duty police officers during the ambush. Eight others received sentences ranging from 4 to 9 years each.

Two years after they ambushed the police station, the Sasna Tsrer became a political party and unsucessfully ran for parliament amid their ongoing trial.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS