HAMPIG SASSOUNIAN DENIED PAROLE FOR 1982 WESTWOOD ASSASSINATION PLOT SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA (CNS) - Hampig Sassounian was denied parole on August 5 for his role in assassinating a Turkish diplomat in Westwood in 1982. A parole board panel meeting at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo ruled that Sassounian, an immigrant who lived in Pasadena, will not be up for parole again until 2013. Sassounian was convicted in 1984 in the shooting death of Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A federal appeals court overturned the jury's special circumstances finding of murder because of national origin, which had made him eligible for the life sentence without the possibility of parole. In 2002, Sassounian signed a statement renouncing terrorism and the prosecution agreed not to go forward with a retrial on a special circumstance allegation. Sassounian was resentenced to 25 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole. Arikan, 54, died shortly after two armed men approached his car from both sides while he was waiting for a red light at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Avenue on Jan. 28, 1982 and fired several rounds that hit him in the head and chest. At trial, a jailhouse informant testified that Sassounian told him he killed Arikan to "get revenge on what the Turkish people did to his people." | 
