YEREVAN. – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has accepted for consideration the petition filed by the Constitutional Court (CC) of Armenia on the basis of the appeals by a capital city Yerevan court of first instance and second President Robert Kocharyan, and along the lines of the criminal case into the events that occurred in Yerevan in March 2008, the CC staff has informed.

Accordingly, the CC’s aforesaid petition on receiving advisory opinion on the cases accepted for consideration by the CC has been accepted for consideration by the ECHR on Wednesday.

On July 18, the CC decided to terminate—on the basis of the appeals by a Yerevan court of first instance and ex-President Robert Kocharyan—the case proceedings on determining of the constitutionality of Article 300.1, and petitioned to the European Court of Human Rights and the Venice Commission for a respective advisory opinion.

Ex-President Robert Kocharyan is charged with overthrowing the constitutional order in Armenia in connection with the aforesaid events in March 2008, and taking a particularly large bribe. He has been arrested three times within one year; the last one was on June 25, by the decision of the Criminal Court of Appeal.

On March 1 and 2, 2008 the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, and against the results of the presidential election on February 19, 2008. Eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes.