We have not said anywhere that the immunity of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan is absolute.

Aram Orbelyan, an attorney of Kocharyan who has been remanded in custody, stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Saturday.

“The incumbent president has absolute immunity,” the public defender explained. “The retired president has a functional, or, as it is noted, immunity stemming from his status.

“An attempt is made to show that if the person has committed a crime, [if] the crime doesn’t stem from his status, he has no immunity; [but] there cannot be such a thing because immunity will become just meaningless.”

The attorney added that it is written nowhere in the Constitution that a constitutional norm reigns supreme over another constitutional norm.

“An attempt is made to say that some constitutional articles are superior to the others, [but] which in no way stems from the Constitution and its interpretation,” Orbelyan stated.

The attorneys of Kocharyan on Wednesday submitted to the Court of Appeal a petition to appeal the court decision on remanding their client in custody.

As reported earlier, a charge has been brought against second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, former Defense Minister Mikayel Harutyunyan, and incumbent Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General and Armenia’s former Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Khachaturov, within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others.

Since Harutyunyan is not in Armenia, a search for him was declared. And on July 27, Khachaturov was released on bail, whereas Kocharyan was remanded in custody for two months by a court decision.

On the evening of July 26, ex-President Robert Kocharyan had given an interview, during which he had said the criminal case against him was trumped-up and a political vendetta.

On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.