YEREVAN. – Tuesday’s court hearing of the criminal case against Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan and several other former senior officials kicked off by considering the reasons for defense attorney Erik Aleksanyan’s absence from the February 23 session.

According to the lawyer, at the February 16 hearing he had asked the court not to schedule the next hearing for February 23 as he had a hearing on that day at the Court of Appeal, but the court had not taken this into account.

The lawyer stressed that he could not have the hearing in the Court of Appeal rescheduled.

According to Aleksanyan, in addition to the session in the Court of Appeal, he had other meetings in the courts.

But the court recalled that more than a year ago it was decided to hold these hearings on Tuesdays, and therefore decided to impose a penalty against Erik Aleksanyan in the form of a warning.