Armenia commemorates victims of October 27, 1999 terrorist attack

ArmInfo.  Today, October 27, marks the 26th anniversary of the terrorist attack in the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

Early this morning, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, President Vahagn  Khachaturyan, and NA Speaker Alen Simonyan laid flowers at the  monument to the victims of the October 27, 1999 terrorist attack.

A memorial ceremony will be held at the monument to the victims of  the crime in the NA garden on the same day. As a reminder, on October  27, 1999, a group of terrorists stormed the parliament building and  shot dead Armenian Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, RA National  Assembly Speaker Karen Demirchyan, Vice Speakers Yuri Bakhshyan and  Ruben Miroyan, Minister of Operations Leonard Petrosyan, and MPs  Armenak Armenakyan, Mikael Kotanyan, and Henrik Abrahamyan. The  terrorist group included former journalist Nairi Hunanyan, who had  worked for a time on Armenian Television, his brother Karen Hunanyan,  their uncle Vram Galstyan, as well as Derenik Bejanyan and Ashot  Knyazyan. Their trial began on February 15, 2001. On December 2,  2003, the Center-Nork-Marash Court of First Instance sentenced the  brothers Nairi and Karen Hunanyan, Edik Grigoryan, Vram Galstyan (who  died in prison in 2004, officially a suicide), Derenik Bejanyan, and  Ashot Knyazyan to life imprisonment. Hamlet Stepanyan was sentenced  to 14 years in prison (his body was discovered in his bed at the  Nubarashen Penitentiary in May 2010). All seven were found guilty of  treason and terrorism. The RA Court of Cassation upheld the sentence.