Hovhannes Khudoyan, lawyer for Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan who is currently in pretrial detention, has addressed the matter of appealing the “criminal case” against Kocharyan to international courts.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Khudoyan stressed that the aforesaid is a mandatory part of the legal process. According to him, an appeal to international courts can be immediate if there is a threat to life and health, while in other cases, such appeals are made after exhausting domestic courts, or when actions taken within the country do not inspire confidence.

The lawyer did not rule out the possibility of appealing Robert Kocharyan’s “case” to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) or the UN court, noting that the latter is preferable in terms of the timeframes for considering complaints.

“All legal instruments will be used, all possibilities provided by law will be used," Khudoyan emphasized, adding that previously made decisions have already been appealed.

In turn, parliament’s opposition “Armenia” Faction member Levon Kocharyan, the son of the second president, in turn, emphasized the fact of obvious political persecution being carried out against his father and older brother.

“The de facto leader of the country [i.e. PM Nikol Pashinyan] directly declares that he will judge, that they ‘must sit [in prison],’ and the very next day a [respective] process begins. There is no need to prove anything here: everything is illegal. The problem is that an attempt is being made to make this a normal phenomenon; this is not normal. And if anyone puts up with it, we do not agree that the judicial and legal systems should operate under the direct orders of one unbalanced person,” Kocharyan stated, adding that all members of the Armenian law enforcement system who carry out illegal orders will be held accountable.