At Friday’s session of the Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia, attorney Aram Orbelyan filed a motion to dismiss the proceedings and criminal prosecution against second President Robert Kocharyan.

The lawyer recalled that after the court's well-known decision to dismiss the case based on the Constitutional Court's ruling, which considered the article under which the charge was filed to be inconsistent with the constitution of Armenia, the court allowed a motion to be filed regarding the amended charge, which, by the way, also had to be corrected. This is what is currently being examined in court.

However, according to Armenian legislation, a new charge cannot be filed in essence, since, on the one hand, such an article did not exist at the time of the alleged act, and on the other hand, they cannot be tried twice for the same act. Thus, the law does not allow filing a new charge.

The Armenian state—represented by the court—accepted that Robert Kocharyan did not commit a criminal crime, effectively acquitting him. But later the prosecution essentially started new proceedings, the lawyer explained, adding that this situation contradicts not only domestic, but also European legislation.

Mihran Poghosyan, the attorney of Yuri Khachaturov, former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, reminded that the cassation appeal led to the question of whether the prosecution has the right to reclassify the crime, but the question of how to reclassify it was never discussed. The cassation court, in essence, granted the appeal, but now the court perceives the decision as an imperative to review the case.

“Yes, an incident occurred, there are victims, but the guilt of these people has not been proven, the case has been dismissed,” the lawyer reminded.

In turn, ex-President Robert Kocharyan emphasized that the Court of Cassation of Armenia went beyond its powers and engaged in lawmaking without having the necessary powers for that.

“We are now trying to correct the consequences. The source of the problem is there,” Kocharyan noted, adding that for the first time in history, an article of the Criminal Code of Armenia was considered unconstitutional, and since then, the country’s courts—starting with the Constitutional Court and especially the Court of Cassation—have been engaged in lawmaking in Armenia.