Gevorg Baghdasaryan, a prosecutor in the criminal case against Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and several other senior officials, submitted the prosecution’s motion at Monday’s session of the Court of Appeal.

According to him, the thing is that this case cannot be dropped simply because it concerns the rights of the victims.

The Constitutional Court had declared unconstitutional Article 300.1—under which a charge was brought to the court—of the Criminal Code, the first instance court had terminated the defendants’ criminal prosecution under this article, but this decision was appealed by the prosecution and defense, alike.

The prosecution argues that the actions by the defendants fall under Article 309.1 of the Criminal Code, and therefore should be re-qualified. The arguments of the opponents that it was necessary to re-qualify before the aforesaid decision of the Constitutional Court, the prosecution considers unfounded because, although there are no longer charges under Article 300.1 after the decision of the Constitutional Court, the actions and their consequences remain.

The prosecutor asked to suspend the investigation of this case and apply to the Constitutional Court, as the current law does not allow re-qualifying the charge at this phase.

At the same time, the prosecutor reprimanded the court of first instance, too. According to Baghdasaryan, Judge Anna Danibekyan had no right to decide to terminate the criminal prosecution in the absence of the parties. To note, the aforementioned decision of the Constitutional Court automatically meant the termination of the criminal prosecution against two of the defendants: former Defense Minister—now an MP—Seyran Ohanyan, and former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov.