The Constitutional Court of Armenia has rendered a decision to reject the motion that Aram Vardevanyan, lawyer for the case of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, filed on June 25 to suspend the validity of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

The decision reads as follows: “Based on the applications of Robert Kocharyan, reject the motion of 25 June 2019 filed by representative of the applicant, lawyer A. Vardevanyan to suspend validity of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia in the combined case on determining compliance of Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia with the Constitution for the following reasons: (1) in the given motion, the applicant had to present facts by which the applicant, as a participant in the constitutional trial bearing liability for proving those facts, had to justify the possibility of emergence of grave consequences for the applicant or public in case of failure to adopt a decision on suspending the disputed provisions, but no such facts have been presented by the applicant. The issue raised by the applicant on contradiction of the disputed provisions to the Constitution needs to be clarified through trial;

(2) taking into consideration the fact that suspension of the disputed provision of the Criminal Code will entail suspension of any criminal trial and criminal prosecution being carried out and to be carried out on the ground of the disputed provision, the Constitutional Court finds that this requires very weighty grounds that will state the severe or grave consequences for the applicant or public, but such consequences may not emerge for the public with the fact of remand of the applicant and the alleged violations of the fundamental rights of the applicant, and the applicant is entitled to lodge a complaint for cassation in regard to the lawfulness of remand; thus, there also cannot be any severe or grave consequences for the applicant.”