YEREVAN. – The trial process of second president Robert Kocharyan and the others is quite agitated and politicized. Armenia’s former Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan told this to reporters Monday after his meeting with the National Assembly Inquiry Committee for Examining the Circumstances of the Military Activities of April 2016.

When asked why he submitted a personal guarantee to commute Kocharyan's current precautionary measure of custody, Karapetyan answered: ""I have specified it in the mediation, and the logic is clear. Like many, I, too, am interested so that the maximum possible answer is given to the questions raised among the society in connection with March 1 [2008], so that there would not be an open side and does not leave a corresponding residue. I respect and appreciate Robert Kocharyan's input and contribution to the independence and stabilization process of the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] Republic and the Republic of Armenia. This trial process has been going on for almost 2 years, and it is likely that it may continue for a very long time; that's why I have submitted a petition to commute the measure of restraint."

And to the question whether political persecution was being carried out against Robert Kocharyan, Karen Karapetyan answered. "It seems to me that this process is quite agitated and politicized. I have now substantiated how I assess my step. I think everyone has the right to express their opinion. No one is saying, ‘Acquit the guilty!’ We are saying, ‘Do the process in a different way by commuting the precautionary measure.”

Former Prime Ministers of the Republic of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan, Khosrov Harutyunyan and Karen Karapetyan, and former Prime Minister of Artsakh Anushavan Danielyan appeared in court on May 8, as personal guarantors for commuting ex-president Robert Kocharyan’s current precautionary measure of custody. The court's respective decision will be announced on Wednesday.