Armenia’s General Prosecutor’s Office has rejected an appeal by Robert Kocharyan’s lawyers, as well as 46 members of Armenia’s National Assembly, to release him from custody. Kocharyan is under investigation for the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan.
A similar motion to Armenia’s General Prosecutor was also signed by fifteen members of the Nagorno Karabakh parliament.
Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan was detained on July 27 on charges of conspiring to overthrow the country’s constitutional order after the presidential election on February 19, 2008.
Kocharyan’s lawyers have submitted a petition to the Court of Appeals, which will hear the case on August 9.
Read more:
Robert Kocharyan Under Arrest: A Timeline of Events
Arevik Khachatryan, Head of the Public Relation Department at the Prosecutor General Office, told Armenpress that at the current stage of the pre-trial investigation, his release would not guarantee “the unfettered course of the investigation.”
Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament and a Republican Party Faction deputy, said that the explanation given by the Prosecutor General’s Office was not convincing.
““There is no justice in new Armenia. Political orders rule new Armenia,” Sharmazanov told Armenpress.
Read more:
With Ex-President’s Arrest, Armenia Sets Post-Soviet Precedent
Background:
On February 19, 2008, Serzh Sargsyan became the president of Armenia. His opponent, the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian and his supporters refused to accept the results of the election. For the next 10 days, there was round-the-clock sit-ins around the Opera, in Freedom Square.
Then-President Robert Kocharyan announced a state of emergency and army subdivisions entered Yerevan. On March 1, government forces clashed with protesters resulting in the deaths of 8 civilians and 2 policemen, and roughly 300 injured.
In the course of 10 years, no one has taken or borne any responsibility, including legal, for the deaths that occurred on March
