On May 4, 2010, Artur Mkrtchyan who had been sentenced to life imprisonment and has spent 14 years in prison, has started a hunger strike. In the application addressed to the Minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan, Artur presented two articles from the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: right to a fair trial and no punishment without law.

Artur Mkrtchyan's other request is to cancel RA second president's illegal decree on amnesty.

According to the president's decree of the 1^st of August, 2003 the death penalty had been substituted by sentence to life imprisonment.

"The people sentenced to death penalty based on the previous Criminal Code complain that this law violates their constitutional right to be free from a graver punishment than the one envisaged by the law at the time of an act." says the first Ombudsman of RA.

19 years old Artur Mkrtchyan was accused and sentenced in 1996 during his military service in a military unit in Noyemberyan area. He was sentenced to death penalty by the Superior military court on the decision of Court Chamber for the murder of 5 conscripts.

During the pre-investigation Artur Mkrtchyan was kept in the military police and under mental and physical duress signed a confession, on which the sentence by the court was substantiated. Violence has been exerted also against his family members.

After he had got a defense attorney, he didn't recognize himself guilty in the crime and announced that the murder of the 5 conscripts had been committed by the 3 police officers who had arrived at the military unit the day of the crime, but the pre-investigation body didn't seem to investigate that.

During all those years Artur Mkrtchyan and his family claimed the law enforcement bodies to reconsider the case, but no result. All the applications have been declined by the prosecution. The complaints of the relatives of the 5 murdered conscripts about the right to a fair trial have also been refused.

"Artur is already too tired, that's why he went to an extreme" said his father Hambarzum Mkrtchyan during our conversation.

Artur Mkrtchyan's case, which has been the subject of our investigation, is full of illegalities. Lawyers and experts insist that when such kind of evidence is at place a decision on acquittal should be made.

Zhanna Alexanyan