Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist, facing death threats in Armenia

Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist and Head of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (HCA) Vanadzor Office, is facing death threats. Ashot Avanesyan, a Facebook user, has publicly claimed that he would kill the human rights activist: “I will shoot him dead from 2-3 meters with a 9mm bullet.”

The aforesaid threat was posted under Artur Sakunts’s publication, where the human rights activist put the blame on the country’s leadership and wrote as follows: “There’s one thing I can’t understand…you’ve killed at least a dozen people in broad daylight; many people have been illegally kept in detention for years, their property and housing have been seized; hundreds of thousands of people have migrated from the country and are now scattered around the world, having fled from your unchallenged injustice, and after all the aforesaid, how dare you insult those who oppose the government through your henchmen?”

A Facebook user using the name ‘Ashot Avanesyan’ commented on the post as follows: “You are Aliyev’s agent [the president of Azerbaijan]… You should be beheaded. Watch out for me every second. I will shoot you dead from 2-3 meters, with a 9mm bullet. Watch out, Sakunts.”