YEREVAN. – The first court hearing on the case Robert Kocharyan v. Nikol Pashinyan will be convened on June 12. Armenian News-NEWS.am has learned about this from the Judicial Information System of Armenia.

On September 17, 2018, second President Robert Kocharyan petitioned to a capital city Yerevan court, and with a demand to defend his honor and dignity against “publicly expressed slander.”

The reason for his submitting this petition was Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s public statement made during his working visit to France, and regarding the wiretapped telephonic conversation between National Security Service (NSS) Director Artur Vanetsyan and Special Investigation Service (SIS) Head Sasun Khachatryan.

The plaintiff considers the following part of Pashinyan’s statement as slander: “Or at least the interpretation on releasing Robert Kocharyan. He says he [Kocharyan] is untouchable [in terms of presidential immunity]. What does it mean untouchable? In other words, can one organize the killing of people and say, ‘I’m untouchable?’ Where is that so written?”

In September 2018, the voice recording of the wiretapped phone talk between the NSS and SIS chiefs was disseminated on the internet. They were discussing the criminal case into the events that had occurred in Yerevan, in March 2008. Robert Kocharyan is a defendant in this case, and he is remanded in custody.

On March 1 and 2, 2008 the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown capital city Yerevan, and against the results of the presidential election on February 19, 2008. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes.