The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia, at its session today, gave its consent to initiate criminal proceedings against second president and leader of the opposition "Armenia" Alliance, Robert Kocharyan, lawyer Aram Orbelyan told reporters outside the CEC.

Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that the Prosecutor General's Office submitted a petition to the CEC for permission to initiate criminal prosecution against second president and leader of the opposition "Armenia" Alliance, Robert Kocharyan, as well as against MP candidates Asatur Kocharyan and Ruslan Barseghyan. Ruslan Barseghyan is 62nd while Asatur Kocharyan is 154th on the parliamentary election electoral list of the "Armenia" Alliance.

In this regard, the office of the second president of Armenia issued a statement, noting that this is a continuation of the illegality that occurred against Robert Kocharyan at the Yerevan international airport two days ago.

“In fact, two days ago the Investigative and Anti-Corruption Committees [of Armenia] were noting that there were no criminal proceedings, and, therefore, the [second] president’s exit [from Armenia] was limited by committing a direct crime; and today the prosecutor’s office under the government ‘stitched up’ some kind of [criminal] case [against Robert Kocharyan] and petitioned to the CEC,” stated the office of the second president of Armenia.