YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — A 58-year-old man died on Tuesday three days after setting himself on fire during a demonstration held in Yerevan in support of opposition gunmen occupying an Armenian police station.
The man, Kajik Grigorian, poured petrol on himself and set himself alight shortly after more than a thousand protesters sympathetic to the gunmen blocked the city’s Marshal Baghramian Avenue on Saturday.
Although other protesters quickly put out the fire, Grigorian suffered serious burns and was hospitalized. He died of the burns in the hospital, according to the Armenpress news agency.
The gunmen seized the police compound in Yerevan’s Erebuni district on July 17 to demand the release of Jirayr Sefilian, the jailed leader of their radical opposition movement, and President Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation. They surrendered to law-enforcement authorities late on Sunday.
Two police officers were killed during the two-week standoff.
Warrant Officer Yuri Tepanosian’s funeral was attended by his colleagues and superiors.
