According to the decision of the Constitutional Court of Armenia, if Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code is unconstitutional, this means the constitutional right of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan to personal freedom has been violated. This is what representative of the second President of Armenia, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan told journalists today, commenting on the decision of the Constitutional Court based on Kocharyan’s application.

Touching upon the second point of the decision according to which Article 135 of the Criminal Procedure Code complies with the Constitution (Article 135 regulates the grounds for applying a preventive measure), Vardevanyan said Articles 35 and 135 complement each other and can’t be applied separately since Article 35 concerns the circumstances excluding criminal prosecution, and this must be taken into consideration when a decision is rendered to detain a person.

When asked if this doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t have been criminal prosecution against Robert Kocharyan in the first place, Vardevanyan said only after becoming familiar with the decision can he give an answer to that question.

Today, the Constitutional Court of Armenia partially granted the application of second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan and recorded that there is no regulation for immunity among the circumstances excluding criminal prosecution, meaning this is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court also recognized the grounds for applying preventive measure for Robert Kocharyan as constitutional.