During today’s court hearing in the criminal case against the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, and others, the court did not allow defense attorney Aram Orbelyan to quote Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s “I will kill” and similar statements, noting that it prohibits the making of a political statement made by an official.

Robert Kocharyan immediately noted from his seat that this applies to him. “Those political statements specifically refer to me,” he said.

And Aram Orbelyan responded as follows: “I completely agree, I agree 100 percent, that’s exactly what I’m saying, that it shouldn’t be discussed here. Political statements should not be a subject of discussion in criminal proceedings. Therefore, the prosecutor should not state here what Robert Kocharyan said at the meeting with students on February 29, 2008. Therefore, it must be dropped from the charge.

It’s just that as soon as it concerns today, it becomes a little more understandable, as soon as it concerns 18 years ago, it is no longer understandable. I must ask [the court] to apply the Criminal Procedure Code so that political statements made in 2008 are not the subject of discussion in this court.”

And Robert Kocharyan stated: “It’s interesting. If I had said something like that, wouldn’t I have been arrested the next day? If I had said, ‘I will kill the prime minister.’ I would definitely have been arrested the next day.”

The criminal prosecution of the defendants in this high-profile case against the second president of Armenia and others was discontinued after the Constitutional Court’s decision, by which the Criminal Code article of the charge was recognized as unconstitutional. However, the Court of Cassation overturned the decision of the court of first instance and continues to consider Kocharyan and the others “accused” and “defendants.”