YEREVAN. – The content of the wiretapped recording of Armenia’s National Security Service and Special Investigation Service chiefs points to a crime – pressure on the court, Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan said in an interview with Yerevan Today.

A scandalous wiretapped recording where the heads of Armenia’s National Security Service and Special Investigation Service are discussing the criminal case against Kocharyan and CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov appeared on the web on Tuesday.

“All our forecasts were confirmed by this recording. All the statements that the case is politically motivated, and this is a political persecution having no relation to the disclosure of the March 1, 2008 events [were confirmed], and the only goal is to arrest me,” Kocharyan said.

The second president added that in any country, officials would have to resign after such a scandal and “would have to apologize to the people for their crime and to apologize to me, to the second president of Armenia”.

However, Kocharyan added, the officials started using the March 1 case instead of justifying their actions.

The second president emphasized that the process is managed by PM, and the director of National Security Service is simply an executor.

“I do say: there is a tyrant in Armenia. Was that the essence of the revolution?” he wonders.

To the remark that the Prime Minister and his team claim that if there were political persecution the court would not have let him go, Kocharyan replied: “Today I am free for one reason, because the judge of the Court of Appeal who considered my case is known as incorruptible judge and a man of principle. This is the only reason. By the way, in this atmosphere, under such pressure, the judge must have strength to resist, and it is difficult to demand such courage from all judges.”