Informant in 1982 Slaying of Diplomat Says He Lied : Murder: The former jail inmate recants testimony that helped send an Armenian immigrant to prison on a life sentence.

Saying it was all a lie, a jailhouse informant Monday recanted testimony at the heart of the case against an Armenian immigrant convicted of the 1982 assassination of a Turkish diplomat who was ambushed in his car at a Los Angeles intersection.

In court papers filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jeffrey Scott Busch, a twice-convicted burglar, said he lied in court when he testified that Harry M. Sassounian confessed to him that he killed Turkish Consul General Kemal Arikan. The case drew intense attention because prosecutors alleged that the killing was an act of nationalistic terrorism.

Busch, who was a key prosecution witness, said Monday that he had never met Sassounian before the trial, knew nothing about the case and made up testimony to gain favors and leniency for himself. In exchange for his testimony, he alleged, authorities gave him money and, when he left jail, bought him a car--a used, blue Ford Pinto.

Busch’s statements marked the latest admission in recent months of false testimony by sophisticated Los Angeles jailhouse informants. In July, 1990, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury issued a stinging report that said the county district attorney’s office for many years tolerated suspected perjury by jailhouse informants as a way to win murder cases.

Armed with Busch’s new statement, which he signed under oath, Sassounian’s attorneys said in the papers filed Monday that they will seek a new trial.

“Now Busch admits he lied and that he, like so many Los Angeles-based inmates, played the perjury game, knowing that the prosecution would swallow any tale, no matter how obviously perjured, so long as it advanced the case against (Sassounian),” Charles M. Sevilla, the San Diego attorney who has handled Sassounian’s case on appeal, said in the papers.

Busch decided to come forward now, seven years after Sassounian was sentenced to life in prison without parole, because he wanted to clear his conscience, Sevilla said in a telephone interview. Busch is living in an undisclosed location in Riverside County, Sevilla said. It is unclear whether he could face perjury charges, Sevilla said.

Prosecutors said they have little reason to believe that Busch has suddenly decided to reveal the truth. Deputy Atty. Gen. David Glassman cautioned that he had not yet read Monday’s filing, but noted that it had been a long time since Sassounian’s trial. “That Busch is now changing his story, that hardly moves me,” Glassman said.

The prosecutor who won the murder conviction against Sassounian, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lael Rubin, said she also was not moved.

“There is no reason to believe what Jeffrey Busch is now saying,” she said Monday.

Arikan, 54, was gunned down on Jan. 28, 1982, as he sat in his car at Wilshire Boulevard and Comstock Avenue near Westwood.

During the trial, Rubin alleged that Sassounian--a Pasadena resident of Armenian descent who was 19 at the time--and at least one accomplice had killed Arikan to avenge a 1915 massacre of Armenians by Turks.

Busch testified that Sassounian confessed to the Arikan killing during a conversation with Busch in Los Angeles County Jail, saying that Sassounian told him it was a revenge killing. Busch was the only witness who linked the crime to Arikan’s nationality.

Convicted of murder, Sassounian was sentenced in 1984 to life in prison without parole. The conviction was affirmed on appeal, and Sassounian now is in the state prison at Tehachapi, according to the legal papers filed Monday. The appellate court said Busch’s testimony was a key factor in affirming Sassounian’s guilt.

Busch’s jailhouse nickname, according to the legal papers, was King Snitch. He said in the legal papers that he never saw Sassounian while in jail and alleged that details of the case were supplied to him by other inmates, a Los Angeles police sergeant and Rubin. That allegation was nonsense, Rubin said.

On the witness stand, Busch said no one made promises to get him to testify--the exact opposite of what he alleged Monday, claiming that authorities gave him cash and the car.

In a 1989 district attorney’s office memorandum included with the defense papers filed Monday, prosecutor Rubin said Busch got no help and no promises of help for testifying. She repeated that Monday.