YEREVAN. – There is no such procedure. Do you imagine what will happen if the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation is disclosed in full?
Sasun Khachatryan, Chief of the Special Investigation Service (SIS), told the above-said to reporters, after Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia. He noted this reflecting on the ongoing preliminary investigation along the lines of the criminal case into what had occurred in capital city Yerevan in March 2008.
He explained that there are people who are collaborating with and providing operative information to the preliminary investigation. “Do you imagine what will happen if all this is disclosed?”
“Confidentiality concerns the phase of preliminary investigation,” Khachatryan added, in particular. “The case is examined openly if it doesn’t contain state secrets.”
When asked whether second President Robert Kocharyan—who is now in freedom—has had any influence on the preliminary investigation, the SIS chief said he had not.
“I’m full of hope that this case will be solved in full,” Sasun Khachatryan said. “Including in respect of the persons who committed murders.”
Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has been charged within the framework of the criminal case into the tragic events that transpired in capital city Yerevan on March 1 and 2, 2008—and under Article 300.1 Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code; that is, breaching Armenia’s constitutional order, in conspiracy with others.
On July 27, Kocharyan was remanded in custody for two months by a court decision. But on August 13, the Court of Appeal granted Robert Kocharyan’s legal defenders’ appeal to commute the first-instance court’s decision on remanding their client in custody, and Kocharyan was released from courtroom on the grounds that he has presidential immunity.
On March 1 and 2, 2008, the then authorities used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the recent presidential election. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes. But no one had been brought to account for these deaths, to this day.
