YEREVAN. – At Monday’s hearing on the criminal case involving Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and several other former senior officials, Hayk Alumyan, one of Kocharyan’s attorneys, filed a motion with the court for the recusal of presiding Judge Anna Danibekyan.
The second President’s legal defender said that there are several circumstances which preclude Danibekyan’s presiding over this trial. According to Alumyan, Danibekyan cannot be considered a proper judge to preside over this court hearing, and she has a biased negative attitude towards Robert Kocharyan.
Judge Anna Danibekyan had ruled against releasing Kocharyan on the basis of the September 4 decision by the Constitutional Court, and then had denied his defendants’ motion to release him on bail.
On June 25, the Criminal Court of Appeal overturned the May 18 ruling by a Yerevan first-instance court to terminate the aforesaid criminal case in connection with the events that occurred in Yerevan in March 2008, sent the case for a retrial, and ruled that Robert Kocharyan be remanded in custody.
Second President Robert Kocharyan, former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and former CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov, former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, and former Deputy Prime Minister and ex-Secretary of the National Security Council Armen Gevorgyan are defendants in this case.
But solely Robert Kocharyan is in custody along the lines of this case. The second president has been remanded in custody three times within one year; the last one was on June 25, by the decision of Judge Armen Danielyan of the Criminal Court of Appeal.
A signature bond to not leave Armenia has been selected as a pretrial measure for Seyran Ohanyan and Armen Gevorgyan, whereas bail—for Yuri Khachaturov.
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.
